<prompt> Human: Hello rpersonalfinance, Im hoping you all might have some advice for me on how to manage my medical debt. Long story short, I was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder in 08 at age 18 that progressed to a rare and incurable cancer in 13 at age 24. I never really had any opportunities or knowledge for the few years I was working on how to accurately manage debt. Over the course of these few years, Ive accrued medical debt that has according to my credit reports totaled roughly 12,500. Im not working at present and will likely be starting chemo for the second time next month. I receive 400 a month from my father and am awaiting trial for my disability case I filed 4 years ago. The 400 goes to car insurance and rent and whatever little I have left goes to buying food and gas so I have no wiggle room. So I essentially have no source of income that can be put aside to even try and make a dent. Once my disability case goes through and my attorney strongly believes it will Ill have 4 years of backpay, and possibly then some, minus legal fees. So at some point in hopefully the near future Ill have a windfall to pay off these debts.Now the medical debt has all gone to collections and thankfully Im on state funded medicaid and pay no fees for any of my medical care and havent for two years. What I did acquire was when I was on my Dads insurance up to age 26. Technically he was the main debtor for these accounts but since I signed and put my name on the financial documents I doubt I have much legal happenstance there and Id rather not screw over my father anyways. What options do I currently have and for the future? Ive been told by some dubious sources to file medical bankruptcy but given that Im only 27 and I do plan on having a future in spite of my illnesses, bankruptcy doesnt seem like the best thing to have on my credit history. Im not sure if even paying in full immediately on these 14 different collections accounts would be the wisest decision when my disability case goes through. My father has agreed to pay an additional 100 a month for me to try and put money into dealing with some of this. Would aiming for the smaller collections to be paid off while waiting for the disability be good? Im really at a loss here on what to do and I havent found much information for a case even close to my own situation. Thank you all so much in advance for your help, Ive seen some great things come from this sub and Im hopeful I too can be one of the people who gets their credit together properly from help garnered.  <response>: I have about 10k from stomach cancer. Medical debt is not the same as regular debt post 2014. I just stopped paying it. I paid 6 k a year for 2 years. After realizing Imd be paying 17 of my net income indefinitely i just put on my sunglasses, lit a cigarette and said F it. No but really. My employee assistance program told me that they can take me to court, but not a lot of judges would enforce it. It also depends on the hospital. Mine is not a private hospital, so they do not send collection to a third party. 