well theres some bad news for you with disability too. neither disability nor medicare are instant start ups. once you submit your papers for disability it can take upwards of 6 month before your papers are even looked at. and then they have to be processed.
also,as i understand it(and i may be wong) the medicare doesnt kick in for a year or two after you get approved for the disability.also, next to nobody gets approved for disability on the first try.some people get turned down two or three times.
one thing you might try would be to check with your local hospital about indigent care programs or talk to a teaching hospital. it still wont be free, but you may pay only a few thousand dollars instead of 10s of thousands of dollars.beyond that; theres not much you can do. maybe public aid?