I heard the BBC was going to do a UK version of Breaking Bad. A teacher gets diagnosed with cancer and then spends 4 seasons getting high quality, free healthcare.
He did have health care but it was inoperable cancer. The reason he needed tons of drug money was to pay for the best care in the country. Free health care doesn't mean they can give the best care to everyone.
False! His insurance was useless so the hospital bills started pilling up and he couldn't pay them. His old rich business partners (Gretchen and Elliot Schwartz) offered to pay for all the treatment but due to Walt's pride and his big resentment towards Elliot and Gretchen, Walt declines.
Walt's main concern is dying and leaving his family in HUGE debt so he gets the idea to cook meth when Hank, his DEA, brother in law tells him about homemade meth labs and how can any idiot can make shitty quality meth and earn thousands of dollars. This inspires Walt, a brilliant chemist, to cook meth because he knows he can make an almost 100% pure product.
Walt's first goal is to make 300,000 dollars and then stop cooking but after Gus Fringe offers him one million dollars for only one month of Walt's time, Walt gets greedy and that's how his downward spiral begins.