He absolutely becomes that person by the end, but it's unclear whether it would have happened were it not for mountainous medical expenses for treatment.
Elliot Schwartz offers to pay for all of Walter's medical treatments in episode 5 and Gretchen does the same in episode 6 of season 1. The show is about pride, not desperation
True, but government provided affordable healthcare is different from charity. Turning down your friends' donations out of pride is one thing, refusing your healthcare provider covering your expenses I would find hard to believe.
I'm not convinced that changes my point. Whether you look at it as an excuse to become that person or not, the excuse would not exist in an alternate version where healthcare was not ruinously expensive.
