<prompt> Human: My transplant medical treatment is ongoing and will never go away. Because of this, I usually accrue around 10k or more of new debt per year BEFORE I meet my maximum out-of-pocket expense and my healthcare plan pays 100. Im of very modest means with two kids and Im still on disability. I pay on this debt monthly, but I can never pay it all off in a year, so it continues to grow. Some bills have already gone into collections. My question seriously does it really make any sense to pay medical debt thats in collections? Im under the assumption that it doesnt hurt my credit score -as its medical- and paying it places a huge hardship on my familys finances. Please understand that this medical debt starts growing again every January 1st because thats a new insurance year.Thanks!  <response>: You have been misinformed. Medical debt does affect your credit score. There is talk of changing the way it affects your credit score but it will always be derogatory even if it is less derogatory than say a defaulted credit card.There is also no law that says they cant just sue you for the medical bills - and many hospitals will refuse to treat you non emergent if you owe them money from previous visits. This all varies from place to place and hospital to hospital but you cant really just not pay medical bills - they arent much different from other bills other than that some hospitals will wait a longer time to send you to collections than say a credit card. 