Arrears due to medical and dental expenses

by Pam
(New York, NY, USA)

We live in New York. My fiance just got a letter saying he is in arrears for medical/dental expenses being that the order says he is responsible for 1/2 of the children's medical/dental expenses. it's about $5500 worth! He's always on-time with the regular payments and now this! He's the type that would just take the hits with no question. Since this will also affect me, no one is helping us, I'm still in college, and we just started saving to have a wedding/honeymoon, I would greatly appreciate some info. we can't pay for this in lump sum or even broken down to a couple payments.

He makes about 2200/month after taxes and pays about $550 for child support for 2 children.. #1 - can we make a payment plan with the support agency? what's an acceptable payment plan? #2 - can they garnish his whole checks (i read they get aggressive after a certain amount in arrears)? what's the most amount they can garnish per check for these arrears? #3 - Does this amount put him "at risk" for jailtime as I've read that a certain amount in arrears make him "greatly delinquent" with possible jailtime danger? #4 - would this go on the credit reporting agencies (as I heard they report to them when arrears equals a big amount)? Does this even qualify as "arrears not being paid" or "12 months worth support not paid" if we just received this info and if we can't make it disappear soon? I heard they get aggressive when the amount of arrears are huge like 12 months worth? I hope someone might be able to assist and offer some enlightenment to a worried soul.