Question

‘cure' was arguably worse than the disease. meaning

Answer 1

sometimes, cure is more painful than the disease.
or more appropriately,
when a person desires a disease for some particular reason and does not want to be treated in order to get well may use the phrase "Cure was arguably worse than the disesase.
Or may be at times the Cure could result in something none other than death. so also a reason to refer to this phrase