From the limited sample size I've gathered with sadness thus far: For serious cancer, terminal or not, the system seems designed for the cost to be "everything you have" whatever that happens to be.
Be in a welfare state is somewhat a good thing even if you pay more taxes.
Although I'm open to a demonstration as to how I'm wrong about that. Last time I checked, health insurance typically can't even cross state borders due to hyper regulation. I don't think you can get further away from Capitalism than the US health system.
For some people this may be true. My mother died of breast cancer at 59 and it really didn't cost her anything thanks to the fact she had health insurance through my father's work. My parents were probably lower-middle-class but the fact that my dad worked the same job for 39 years and had steady health insurance throughout kept them from this fate.