This is maybe true but the actual number you pay is a total gamble depending on whatever the hospital feels like they can discount this month, whatever loopholes the insurance has found for not paying, whatever hoops the insurance or hospital have set up and you have jumped through correctly or not and how much time you have for the next few months or years to fight the bill.
It’s a totally insane and arbitrary system. Probably the pinnacle of a large and unaccountable bureaucracy. Sometimes I wonder if dealing with the mob is a more straightforward and reliable thing vs going to a hospital.
And therefore it's always a gamble of whether one should go in and causes many to not go when they should because "is this really worth we potentially having a thousand plus dollar bill?"
My wife had complications the first time and the total bill was like $35k, insurance paid $9k, and our cost was $0. We actually got our $250 admission back.
Nobody pays the made of number from the first bill not even the uninsured.