Don's medical bills

My friend Don has had two hospitalizations in the last year and no insurance to pay the bills.  He canceled his health insurance when the premium became too expensive and hoped to ride out the 2 years until he could be covered by Medicare.  That happened just after the cut-off date for signing up for insurance under the Affordable Care Act.

First he had an aortic aneurysm burst which nearly killed him.  Now he has an esophageal stricture and was hospitalized because it had almost completely closed.  He had his esophagus "cleaned" but is still too narrow to allow anything but very small amounts of fluid.  He has to wait until testing to find out what is causing it before any treatment can begin.  He asked to be allowed to go home in the meantime to reduce the hospital bill that was mounting up.

Since his aneurysm he has barely been able to work which means he cannot pay his medical bills.  Being self-employed he is not eligible for unemployment.  He is applying for Medicaid and will be applying for insurance under the Affordable Care Act when the next enrollment period opens up.  But those will not cover bills from before he is approved.

Don's a proud man and would not ask for help on his own.  His son is self-employed and cannot do much to help with the hospital bills.  His grandson is worried because "Poppa" keeps going to the hospital.

His friends want to raise enough money to pay off most of his hospital bills, and if possible have enough to pay for treatment of his esophageal stricture until insurance starts.