Medical bills...WHAT?

I have fairly shitty insurance. I've known that, and because I'm not often sick, I coped with it.

Now that I've had cancer, chemo, and soon radiation, I realize just how shitty it is to get sick in the US. I've already paid about 6000.00 to meet my deductible, and now more bills are starting to roll in. I've decided that "they"--doctors' offices, hospitals, etc.--like to wait until you're more than halfway finished with treatment to start hitting you with the cost. Currently, I owe $1000 to my surgeon for talking to me in August and her assistant for my lumpectomy, a person I never met.

Getting the mail has become a scary necessity. I love getting mail, but since most of my mail relates to medical bills, I hate opening the box. Up next, I assume I'll get billed from the anesthesiologists, the plastic surgeon, some guy named Bill who was in the OR with me, but who I never met. Then the chemo bills will be here. I estimate this venture will cost between $15,000-$20,000, and I have insurance.

What about those who don't have insurance? What happens to them?

My greater worries include my yearly MRIs I'll now need as well as the cost of cancer drugs for the next five years. And although my insurance can't drop me, I'll not be able to find new insurance. Regardless of the Affordable Healthcare Act, insurance companies still turn people away.

I'm angry about what this will cost me, but I'm even angrier that medical costs are so completely out of control. I'm angry that 'regular' people have to forgo medicines and care they need because they have to choose between their family and their health.

For those reading this, what do you think? Are medical costs out of control? How does the average American pay their medical bills?