If you can't afford it don't use the service. He was more than welcome to not go and stay home.
I think the point Ethan was making had to do with market distortions in the price of medical care resulting from government interference at multiple levels, including government's long term partnership with the insurance companies. In other words, what we're seeing are not natural market prices for these services, but a gross distortion of them whereby absurd profits are being made that wouldn't be supported by anything like a free market in medical care.
