병원비 못내서 collection 넘어가면 어떻게 되나요?
collection으로 어떤 불이익이 있는지 이게 심하게 credit을 망가지나요?

How much is it?
If that collection agency buy the debt they will probably pay 2 or 3 cents per dollar. If your debt was $1000, the collection agency will pay $200-$300 to buy that debt from the hospital and will try to collect $1000 + interest + other fees from YOU. That’s how they make profit.
Or the hospital could HIRE a collection agency to collect money from you. In this case, collection agency will be paid by the hospital for their service.

Anyway, once the debt goes into collection agency, they will do these.

1. A negative record on your credit report. This will hurt your credit score a lot. Once this negative score shows up on your credit report, it will stay there for 7 years regardless of you pay off the debt or not. So your score will be hurt for 7 years.
If you pay the debt then the 7 year clock starts again. For example, if they report collection account on your report in year 2009 it should be removed from your report in 2016. However, if you pay the debt in year 2012, then the 7 year reporting cycle starts over thus, the record will remain until 2019.

2. They will probably sue you. Then you have two choices. You go to the trial or completely ignore it. If you go to court and win at the court, that’s good for you. But they can sue you again if they get further evidence. But this rarely happen. If you lose at the court you will get the judgment, and collection agency can garnish your wage, or take money out of your bank account.
A judgment is valid for certain period of time depends on the state. In general, it’s 7 years. Once that 7 year expires without successfully collecting money, they can update that judgment then the judgment will be valid for another 7 years. They can do this until you DIE.

But there are statute of limitation in law suit. For example, in california, if a collection agency want to sue a debtor, they have do it within 4 years from the date of first delinquency. After 4 years, they can not sue any more.

So in worst case for you,
They sue you with in 4(california) years, you lose the case, they get judgment and garnish your wage or your bank account.

The best case for you is,
they don’t sue you within 4(california) years, they can’t do anything and you don’t need to pay them. Your bad credit report will be cleared after 7 years. BUT STILL they can try to collect from you by just saying “Please pay us”. They can do this forever, but nothing will happen to you even if you don’t pay.

thank you for the tip.

병원과 잘 이야기 하셔서 한달에 단 몇십불이라도 내는 쪽으로 payment plan을 만드세요. 당연 이자도 없고 원금도 많이 깎아줄 가능성이 큽니다.