Right, but her point is that had they (the author and her late husband) actually understood the costs at the time that they were making treatment decisions they

Right, but her point is that had they (the author and her late husband) actually understood the costs at the time that they were making treatment decisions they might have made different ones. On the other hand, as you note, in a very real sense they'd already paid for the treatment in the form of decades of premiums.