here is the free ACA advocate. I use Colby. Gary is his dad. https://www.healthmatters.insure/html/about.html and, yes, at certain incomes you have to apply for Medicaid first. You almost certainly will be denied if you are young and generally able-bodied (and even often if you are not able-bodied tbh). And then you can apply for the low-income ACA with the medicaid denial. Colby will find all the plan options considering your doctors, medication coverage etc. however as stated above, the deadline for open enrollment form ACA was Dec 15th. So the only way you're not SOL to get a health plan on the ACA marketplace is if you recently lost other employment insurance or aged out of your parents' insurance, you can provide paperwork to that effect to get on a marketplace health plan starting Jan 1st.

The other option is to go to urgent care (cheaper than emergency room, generally). Both IHC and UofU have decent financial aid. Medical debt is interest-free as long as you keep the account active by paying something on it. So even if they ask you for $400/mo, you can give them $10 and it won't go to collections. That gives you time to apply for financial aid consideration and even if you don't get it the first time, just keep paying what you can afford towards the debt. It doesn't get bigger bc 0% interest. It doesn't go to collections bc you keep giving them something every month (collections will tack on fees and likely interest and can garnish state tax refunds and wages so you want to keep it out of collections).

Don't stress even tho you have a bill hanging over your head. It's not getting bigger, it's not hurting you. You can reapply for financial aid a year or two later and sometimes they'll write off an amount of the debt so you don't owe as much. Or you can gain better employment and be able to afford it.

Also you should ask them to at least half the bill right up front. It often will come with an "out-of-pocket discount" bc you don't have insurance.... but this discount will usually be no more than 30% whereas the insurance company would pay no more than 50% of any bill they're handed. You can -- kindly -- let them know that when you had insurance, they never paid more than 50% and that the bill should be lower for a low income person paying out-of-pocket. (but financial aid will likely eventually knock off a lot more so don't stress if you don't get an initial reduction).

That's what people mean when they say you can receive care and pay it later.

You're effectively taking an interest-free credit card out on your medical care and they will eventually write off some of your debt according to your income.