I lived in the USA for thirty years. These stories are commonplace there.

On the other hand, my parents died in Canada of long illnesses and it cost us absolutely nothing, and the hospital they died in (same one, different times!) was beautiful and overlooked a lovely forest, probably one of the last things they saw.

Sometimes I feel that the cruelty of the medical system is not just a byproduct, but the point of the exercise.

Thanks for writing this moving article.