Q: Hello, Will I be detained/arrested at an airport if I was ever to go back to somewhere in the USA?
I worked at a summer camp in 2016. I injured myself and had to go to the hospital. I was discharged from hospital and went home to Europe. My insurance policy did not pay the medical bill and it was sent on to me. This was thousands of dollars. I could not afford to pay this and after several communications it seemed the bill was paid for by the hospital. I would like to know if I can ever go on holiday to the USA, or the federal government will have put my name on a list for not paying a medical bill.
A:
I'm not aware of such lists - the immigration attorneys here would know more about that. But you await an answer for a week. You could add "Immigration Law" as a category - no guarantees, but it's possible attorneys in that category might be able to offer additional insights there.
With personal injury billing matters in GENERAL nationwide, non-payment of medical bills does not usually result in criminal actions, unless there was deceit or fraud involved in submitting or evading a bill. Non-payment usually results in civil collection actions. It's difficult for anyone here to guess what ultimately happened to the bill. Hospitals could place unpaid bills into suit, attempting to sue the person and get a judgment - or they could write them off, as you as you suggest. It could depend on the amount of the bill, how aggressive the hospital's billing and collections department is, and other possible factors. If you receive no additional responses here, a quick consult with an experienced immigration attorney might be able to offer guidance (there could be statute of limitations issues as well, based on the timeline here - collection attorneys should advise on that). Good luck
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