(a) I believe medical debts don't affect credit scores for a long time.
(b) I believe medical debts are required to have complete erasure from a credit report if cleared so if I actually needed my credit score to buy a house or whatever I could take the $5K hit to restore the credit score at that time.
(c) I sent them a formal letter disputing the debt, which I assumed means they can't just take it to the credit agency, they'd have to go to court with me first. (Again IANAL, I don't know how accurate this is.) In any case I was mentally prepared to spend $10K on lawyers and court and give them a absolute hell of a time than pay $5K to pay for healthcare I shouldn't need to pay for. I made it VERY CLEAR to the debt collectors that I was ready to pay for lawyers.
(d) For the forseeable future I don't think I need my credit score for anything. I don't plan to borrow money.
Fwiw, in New York state, medical debt is prohibited from being reported on the credit report or from affecting the credit score. California has also passed such a law that takes effect soon.
New York's law focuses on prohibiting healthcare providers and related entities from reporting medical debt, while California's law directly restricts credit reporting agencies from including medical debt in credit reports.
I also wasn't too concerned about that because
(a) I believe medical debts don't affect credit scores for a long time.
(b) I believe medical debts are required to have complete erasure from a credit report if cleared so if I actually needed my credit score to buy a house or whatever I could take the $5K hit to restore the credit score at that time.
(c) I sent them a formal letter disputing the debt, which I assumed means they can't just take it to the credit agency, they'd have to go to court with me first. (Again IANAL, I don't know how accurate this is.) In any case I was mentally prepared to spend $10K on lawyers and court and give them a absolute hell of a time than pay $5K to pay for healthcare I shouldn't need to pay for. I made it VERY CLEAR to the debt collectors that I was ready to pay for lawyers.
(d) For the forseeable future I don't think I need my credit score for anything. I don't plan to borrow money.