My brother in law died in June. Heart attack. Four hours in the hospital and gone. And then the bills came. He’d let his insurance lapse two months prior. Bills were a few thousand here for the cardiologist, another few there for the ER docs, a bit for the radiologist. I helped my sister-in-law negotiate these down but they weren’t back breakers. Then the hospital bill came: $195k. This is a story about that.