That's usually what happens. The uninsured tend to be poorer, less stably employed, and the hospitals look to extract marginal revenue from these people. Paying for all of the bill collectors, legal review, etc. to get the original bill amount just isn't worth it in most cases, or so I hear from insiders. I suspect in this case because there is insurance that the family will try and succeed somewhat to get partial responsibility from the insurance company. This was emergency medicine for a dependent child - not a commonly excluded category.