Check ambulance fees and the average savings stats. It might not be so far fetched.

And yet the majority of Americans cannot afford a surprise $1000 dollar expense.

My daughter broke her leg just over a month ago. I have decent insurance and my out of pocket expenses were still close to $2000 alone with in network coverage. I think a lot of HNers are somewhat wealthy middle class+ with cash in the bank, or not from the US so they have no clue how out of control these kinds of expenses are.