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Ann Woloson is executive director of Consumers for Affordable Health Care and recent recipient of a Families USA Health Advocate of the Year award.
Consumers know something needs to be done to address rising health care costs. Mainers are squeezed at the outset by sharply rising health insurance premiums and too many are carrying significant medical debt. Even consumers who have historically been somewhat insulated from sticker shock are feeling the pinch. The cost of health care in Maine is a real problem — one that needs to be addressed sooner than later.
The situation is bleak. More than four out of 10, almost half of Maine families, carry burdensome medical debt. Most Mainers attribute their medical debt to hospital services, with one out of three carrying $5,000 or more. Hospital services contribute the most to total health care spending, followed by physician services and prescription drugs. In fact, per capita hospital expenses have significantly outpaced inflation nationally and Maine households’ median income. This trajectory is unsustainable.
Health insurance premiums for individuals without employer-sponsored coverage saw an average increase of 24% in their monthly premiums. Premiums for small businesses increased an average of 17% this year. Data from the Department of Health and Human Services show a 9.5% decline in total enrollment in Maine’s Marketplace in 2026 from 2025 (from 64,678 to 58,523). The decrease is in large part the result of increased costs.
Even people in large group insurance plans have been negatively affected. Nurses striking at Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center cited the need to protect nurses’ health insurance benefits from potentially exorbitant increases as part of the justification for the strike. Bath Iron Works strikers say the rising costs of benefits, including health insurance, would cause union members to lose money despite other increases in compensation.
When the pain is felt this keenly in so many sectors, you know it’s time for policy makers to act.
In January, the State Employee Health Commission urged legislators to support a bill to change current law that caps monthly health insurance premium increases from the consumer price index (CPI) plus 3% to CPI plus 10%. The commission cited the need to increase the cap to address double-digit cost increases and to offset onerous benefit changes such as higher deductibles and increased co-pays.
Policymakers have the opportunity to slow the growth of the cost of health care in Maine. An amended version of LD 2196, An Act to Lower Health Insurance Costs, Reduce Barriers to Health Care and Ensure Fair Prices for Health Care, takes a very modest step in addressing rising costs. It seeks to slow the growth of hospital prices over time in Maine’s individual and small group market and in Maine’s state employee health plan, a move that could save taxpayers and premium-payers millions of dollars. The amended bill also steers a greater share of health insurance reimbursement to primary and behavioral health care providers, another strategy to create savings.
Originally, the bill capped hospital prices, which would have created even more savings. However, that aspect of the bill was removed to attempt to address concerns from hospitals, which threatened mass layoffs and closures if that part of the bill was included.
We applaud the amended version of the bill, which takes modest steps to start addressing the relentless rise of health care costs. Mainers deserve nothing short of immediate and sustained relief.
