You owe the money. The responsibility to determine coverage is yours, not the hospital’s. “Go ahead and ding my credit” is bad leverage because it’s not like the people you’re speaking with are going to lose out on anything - their compensation isn’t based on one client’s collections. You, on the other hand, can be forced to deal with the credit hit, collections calls to family and employers, etc. it’s a mess.

Contact the hospital and see if they will lower the $3200 to a rate for people without coverage (since that’s technically what you were). Then ask for a payment plan.

Best of luck to ya.