She had been saving about $200 per month, by doing without many things a lot of us take for granted - movies, dining out etc. Health insurance before she got sick would have been more than $600 per month, after her disease became known she couldn't get insurance for any price. You know that preexisting condition thingy.

Like others you seem to assume things not in existence. My "friend" is my adult daughter. She has FAP - look it up if you care. She worked at a small CPA firm after Safeco closed her division in a cost saving move. The CPA firm had fair health insurance when she went to work there. Then, because it was too costly they dropped the insurance in favor of an employee medical savings plan. She contributed the maximum possible. That was more than wiped out by her first surgery.

I honestly can’t see what else she could do. She quit the CPA firm to take a job that paid $15,000 a year less, but had decent health insurance. By then she owed so much there was no way she could pay it. She tried to work out some sort of payment plan but the hospital wasn't interested and there were still surgeons, anesthesiologist and a bunch of other in line. She really did not want to declare bankruptcy, but saw no other option. To me that is a broken system.