In the last year my mom has started having a problem with certain medical bills getting paid by insurance. They always pay but sometimes it requires a call or two to the insurance or doctors office to fix it.
I would like to provide an anecdotal counter-point, because I don’t think your experience is representative.
My father was a master plumber and operated his own business, very successfully, for 30+ years until he died of lymphoma. We fought with insurance tooth and nail but when all was said and done, his estate - which included property, savings, and his business assets - were drained to less than $10,000 by medical bills when all was said and done.
He was a military veteran, and was also getting support from the VA - if not for that, he’d have been bankrupted years before he died.
This was someone who, by most metrics, did everything right - he pulled himself up by his bootstraps, was an absolute workaholic, and worked hard to make his business successful, and for all of that, he checked out with less than $10,000. And he died at 64 - he was working up until about 2 weeks before he died.