Walt’s medical bills alone would bankrupt him for the rest of his natural life, even if he had good insurance. This is all based on real shit by the way, as we all know. No free medicare in the US.
I get the feeling this wasn’t the mentality they were going for when they wrote this damn thing, but inflation and rent and all. Just makes you think, y’know?
They give Walt an out with his former friends offering to bankroll his treatment, in order to make this decision to go into crime financially unnecessary and therefore a moral issue that can be deployed for dramatic purposes later in the story. The fact they had to use two rich philanthropic characters as a plot device to create this situation within the setting says a lot.