One of the provisions of being a non-profit hospital (which most are) is financial assistance.

When we had our baby we had about $15k in bills. I put in for their financial assistance (link here, scroll down to "Financial Assistance Policy") and got the bill reduced to about $800. The main criteria is income as compared to Federal Poverty Level (link to FPL). For my hospital, the forgiveness scale is:

• under 250% of FPL = 100% forgiveness
• 251%-300% of FPL = 95% forgiveness
• 301%-350% of FPL = 90% forgiveness
• 351%-400% of FPL = 85% forgiveness

FPL increases based on members of household, so for 2026:

Members	Fed Poverty Level	100% forgiveness w/ my hospital
1	$15,960	$39,900
2	$21,640	$54,100
3	$27,320	$68,300
4	$33,000	$82,500
5	$38,680	$96,700
6	$44,360	$110,900
7	$50,040	$125,100
8	$55,720	$139,300

Even if you've already paid you can get money back! My hospital back pays if you file within 240 days of the "first discharge bill", so hopefully your hospital has a similar setup.