In Down East Maine, King Listens to Concerns About Senate Health Care Bill

MACHIAS, Maine, July 5 -- The office of Sen. Angus S. King Jr., I-Maine, issued the following news release:

U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) today visited Eastport Health Care Clinic and Down East Community Hospital in Machias where he heard concerns from doctors, health care providers, and hospital leadership over the proposed legislation currently under consideration by the Senate to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA). At Eastport Health Care Clinic, Senator King sat down with the leadership of every Federally-Qualified Health Center throughout Washington County.

The legislation - the so-called Better Care Reconciliation Act, which was released last week after being crafted behind closed doors and was not put through the normal committee process - would drastically increase the cost of health care many people across Maine, severely slash critical funding to Medicaid, and threaten the financial viability of community hospitals in rural Maine. In fact, according to estimates by the Kaiser Family Foundation, for a 40-year old living in Washington County making $40,000 annually, the Senate health care bill would increase out-of-pocket costs by $800 per year.

"I have long been concerned about what this bill will do to folks across Washington County and throughout Maine," Senator King said. "I am very concerned that people in communities like Eastport and Machias will get hammered by this bill - that it will make health insurance more expensive for them, that it will put it out of reach for others, and that it will endanger community hospitals in rural parts of the state. These were also the same concerns I heard today from health care providers, and it has only reinvigorated my determination to stand up for Maine people and fight against this terrible bill. People across the state deserve affordable, accessible, and high-quality health coverage, and that's not what this bill gives them."

Senator King has spoken out against the American Health Care Act, which is the House-passed health care bill, and the Senate health care bill as "the most ill-conceived, damaging, and downright cruel piece of legislation" he has seen in his adult life. He has blasted the bill's age tax, which makes insurance more expensive for older Americans, and denounced the bill's impact on Maine's fight against the opioid epidemic, its impact on people with disabilities, and how it will harm rural hospitals across the state. Senator King opposes the repeal of the Affordable Care Act and has repeatedly called on his colleagues to engage in bipartisan discussions to make meaningful improvements to the law before rushing to repeal of it.