This is true and the system is incredibly wasteful and dumb, but to be clear those uninsured people would immediately negotiate it down to about $250 by calling and saying "wtf am I supposed to do with this bill".
No. What really happens is that the hospital does a check on whether the uninsured person has any assets.
If yes >> garnish the assets. This can include your business, your house, whatever you have.
If no >> ok they're poor, let's negotiate it down to the limit of what they can pay.
If they're really, really poor, it gets written off... and the other uninsured people bear the cost of that writeoff. That's one of the major reasons that the costs for uninsured people are so crazy; the hospital system is allowed to do that.
