Mostly though he's had to delay his retirement significantly due to huge medical expenses he and my mom have been unlucky enough to have to deal with over the years. They have spent more money on healthcare than most people could even imagine. I think their insurance, not counting out of pocket costs, just premiums (now that they both have bad pre-existing conditions) in some years have been over 20k a year.

Yes, some of these treatments are really expensive. You have to also realize that these treatments are really expensive to develop. Why should I expect incredibly smart and highly specialized people to give away their time for free? It takes huge amounts of resources to solve a problem like cancer.

I promise you I understand the problems caused by the cost of healthcare as much as or more than most people. That being said, the option to be poor and alive is still much better than being dead. You can always come back from being poor.