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SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) ― Tens of millions of Americans have no health insurance. So how do they pay for medical and dental care? Until recently, it was, scrape up the funds wherever you can. In recent years, the credit card industry has come up with another answer: charge it.

However, some consumers say they found the debt can sometimes be worse than the disease.

For Reina Lopez it all started when she needed a $6,000 surgery for gall stones. "It's a pain that makes you feel as if your heart is going to stop," Lopez said.

Lopez went to a clinic. But with no health insurance, Lopez and her husband, Frank Morales, took the only option they could: a medical credit card, Care Credit, offered by the clinic, which would pay the clinic up-front, in full.

"They collected the money from Care Credit right there," Morales said. The clinic scheduled surgery for two-and-a-half weeks later.

But after 11 days, Lopez' pain was too severe to bear. Morales wound up taking his wife to a hospital for surgery instead. "I had to see a doctor, because I couldn't stand the pain," Lopez said.

Morales then called the clinic to cancel, "and they said, 'No, we cannot cancel because we already paid the doctor, we already paid the anesthesiologist, we already paid the hospital", he recalled.

What about their $6,000? According to Morales the clinic told him, "We won't return you the money because you signed a no-refund contract."

John Metz, a patient advocate from Just Health said "they were being asked to pay $6,000 for services they didn't get." He also said they're not the only ones: "The people who take out the credit can end up being crushed, losing everything."

Many people do use these cards to pay for procedures they want, but don't necessarily need, like Lasik vision correction, or cosmetic surgery, but they're also being used in doctors' offices, and especially dentists' offices for medical care people can't do without.

"People are being asked to sign up for credit that they can't afford," said Elizabeth Landsberg of the Western Center on Law and Poverty. She believes the combination of need, and medical credit cards, can result in problems.

"Unfortunately, the product does seem to be creating a temptation on the part of some dentists, to push for services that people might not medically need, or certainly that they can't afford," Landsberg said.

That is what Dao Hoang believes happened to her sister. "They saw someone they could take advantage of," she said.

The family wants to protect the privacy of Hoang's sister because she's developmentally disabled. In fact, that is the reason Hoang believes her sister didn't know what she was getting into when she went to a San Francisco dental office in 2007. Hoang said "she went in there just to get a routine teeth cleaning."

The sister has no health insurance and the clinic offered her the Care Credit card. In the same visit, the dentist recommended extensive dental work, costing $9,000 and in a second visit Invisalign braces at $5,200. The total charges to her new Care Credit card were nearly $15,000.

"My sister didn't understand that Care Credit is a credit card!" said Hoang.

Hoang said when she asked for money back, the dental office told her they had a no-refund policy.

"They said I had to get the money back from Care Credit, and when I get to Care Credit, Care Credit says: no, we can't give you your money back," said Hoang.

Landsberg said, "We've gone from a dentist or doctor-patient relationship to a complicated third-party credit relationship that makes it harder for people to resolve the problems."

Hoang complained to the state dental board and later got $2,700 back from the dentist. That dentist would not do an on camera interview, but his office manager told CBS 5 Investigates that Hoang's sister needed the work and agreed to the services and the office was not aware of her disability.

As far as the clinic that charged Reina Lopez and Frank Morales $6,000? They didn't respond to questions from CBS 5 Investigates. After we started investigating, Care Credit cancelled the charges.

In a statement to CBS5, GE Money, the company that runs the Care Credit program, said the cards "are not intended for emergency and/or critical care use". In regard to the Hoang case the company says they "show no outstanding issues" on that account.

But Frank Morales sees problems with the whole system. "I don't think this is fair and I don't think its right", said Morales.

Response From Care Credit:

"We're pleased and proud of the fact that 95% of our patients and providers find our products --no interest and/or extended payment plans--convenient and easy to understand and use. However, we do recognize that the potential for confusion and abuse are real. That's why we closely track issues to continuously strengthen our training materials, improve our processes, and ultimately provide patients and providers with a fair and consistent resolution to concerns and disputes.

"Regarding Ms. Lopez's case, our Healthcare Service Center researched her claim and upon determining that services were not delivered, a refund was provided and no costs were incurred. While privacy regulations preclude lenders from receiving specific treatment information, our products are not intended for emergency and/or critical care use. We have automatic chargeback rights, as well as other remedies such as terminating provider relationships, which were exercised.

"Regarding the other case cited, despite several attempts, we have not been able to obtain the patient's permission to discuss details related to her account and again, privacy regulations preclude us from providing more information. Still, it should be noted that we show no outstanding issues concerning this account."

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