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and nearly half have less than $1,000 on hand to deal with such expenses, according to a recent study by the disability insurer Aflac.

ut-of-pocket costs continue to rise even as healthcare inflation remains low.

She eventually went to the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, where she has been treated for more than two months. The bill at the end of August was $650,000. The hospital, he said, called them to ask for a payment for $500,000.

But while Mr. Cantu expects to enroll for coverage for next year, the law won’t help him with his wife’s medical bills, which he estimates now approach $1 million, if not more. “Where am I going to get that kind of money?” he said. “In 20 years, I wouldn’t be able to pay it off.”

The Minuteman plan would streamline billing processes to save on administrative costs and allow providers to work more closely with employers, organizers said. Information about smoking cessation or workers’ weight collected through employer wellness programs is not typically shared with doctors. “Imagine working closely with an employer who can help us gather data and, with employees’ permission, to be able to share that data with their primary care providers,” said Dr. Jeff Lasker, chief executive of the Tufts physician group, New England Quality Care Alliance.

Partners HealthCare last year announced plans to acquire Neighborhood Health Plan, which mostly serves low-income people. Steward Health Care has worked with Fallon Community Health Plan to develop plans offered at reduced prices through a small business cooperative created by the Retailers Association of Massachusetts.

ecame one of the hospital's busiest surgeons and was billing four times as much as Dr. Abou-Samra within a year

Doctors complain, though, that the savings comes from cutting reimbursement rates, which discourages health care providers from accepting Medicaid patients. The Texas Medical Association also expressed disappointment that Gov. Rick Perry rejected proposals to expand the number of people on Medicaid to include the working poor.

But since the poor and uninsured often rely on expensive emergency room care, Lunsford said hospitals will continue to pass on those costs to the public when those patients don’t pay their bills.