This is the problem with the completely stupid healthcare system in the U.S.: this kind of moralistic outrage only makes sense in the context of our ridiculously overpriced costs which are the way they are because of perverse incentives in our healthcare system. If we had single-payer health care we'd probably be spending less on healthcare overall (https://decisiondata.org/news/how-much-single-payer-uhc-woul...), and this would never have been a news story.
But, instead, we have these kinds of framings where someone did something stupid and has no way out of their situation besides desperately looking for some way to cover their costs without being completely screwed. How would any of us deal with this if we were in the same position? Coming back to "well he did it to himself" overlooks the reality of our system which is that so many folks with health issues have no options, regardless of how few mistakes they've made. And if we start demarcating who should and shouldn't get health care because of whatever stupid thing they have done, then I imagine we'd first say "well, all you smokers and drinkers, you don't get to have health care any more. Same for you overweight folks. Also you kids who got hurt because your parents weren't careful enough about protecting you when you were in a car/riding a bike/in a pool/etc.--sucks to be you." Etc. etc. This is first and foremost cruel, and more to the point, it is an absolutely ineffective way to determine public policy.
If we stop applying these regressive moralistic arguments to who should and shouldn't have healthcare, and instead frame things in terms of the kinds of public health outcomes we want and the type of policies that produce those outcomes, we get to profoundly better results (which can be seen by considering how other developed nations with non-dysfunctional healthcare systems function, if nothing else). But as far as I can tell, based on my lived experience over the course of almost five decades, Americans mostly don't seem to want to concede to their fellow citizens any of this kind of pragmatism and compassion until they themselves find themselves in similar situations. The majority of the responses in this thread--including yours--seem to bear that out.