It's not even necessarily just a soft cost. People hear about a friend getting a huge medical bill, they don't go to the doctor as often as they should because they're afraid they'll get stuck with a huge bill, some condition that could have been treated inexpensively if caught early gets missed, the person eventually goes to the hospital when the condition gets too bad to ignore anymore, and huge, expensive efforts have to be made to treat the condition in its advanced stage. And at the end of all this... our person gets handed a huge medical bill.

Healthcare in the US is screwed up beyond belief.