WHAT MAINERS ARE SAYING ABOUT RISING INSURANCE PREMIUMS: "I AM SCARED," "WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO," PEOPLE "ARE GOING TO DIE"

The following information was released by the Maine Democratic Party:

Mainers continue sound alarm over skyrocketing insurance rates as Collins does nothing

Augusta, Maine As Susan Collins refuses to do anything to extend the ACA's tax credits, Mainers continue to sound the alarm about the hardship they'll face due to expected skyrocketing insurance rates as the CoverME ACA marketplace's open enrollment period begins tomorrow, November 1.

Despite months of warnings from Mainers about the impact of rising costs and Maine state officials warning action had to be taken before September 30th, Collins "has yet to sponsor" any legislation to extend the tax credits. She has instead voted numerous times against a bill that would protect more than 50,000 Mainers who are at risk of seeing their insurance premiums "double, triple or even quadruple" when enhanced premium ACA tax credits expire.

See what Mainers are saying:

WMTW: Maine residents who rely on ACA worried about skyrocketing health insurance costs

People in Maine who rely on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to get their health insurance have expressed concern after checking the open enrollment figures and learning that their premiums are about to increase significantly.

Cathy Rasco, owner of Arabica Coffee in Portland's Old Port, has been in business for 30 years. Rasco and her 22-year-old daughter, Summer Walsh, get their health care coverage through the public health care marketplace and received ACA credits to help lower the cost.

Rasco, like so many others, is just finding out her premium is more than likely going to double for 2026.

"I am currently paying $840 a month for a high-deductible bronze plan. Looking forward to the new rates for 2026, my new premium is around $1,300 a month," Rasco said. "I don't know how I'm going to pay $15,000 a year just in premiums, let alone the deductible and out-of-pocket expenses."

Dr. Patrick Connolly, a Portland physician, said he is worried for those patients who will not be able to afford any insurance.

"That barrier to health care makes people suffer," Connolly said. "They have worse health care outcomes, and they are going to die."

"It is only with the help of my family that I'm getting all my bills paid. Now, I don't know what's going to happen and I am scared," said South Portland resident Chena Immel.

The fear is that the new ACA premiums will be so high that people will choose to go without any health insurance coverage.

Portland Press Herald: Health insurance premiums for ACA plans set to skyrocket in Maine if tax credits expire

Samantha Merrill said when she opened a letter last week from Maine's Affordable Care Act marketplace, she knew it was going to be bad news about her 2026 premiums.

It was worse than she anticipated.

Merrill, 59, of North Berwick, said the letter indicated her premiums would jump from $478 to $1,262 per month if ACA tax credits, which help pay health insurance premiums for millions of Americans, expire this year. That would amount to more than $15,000 per year for health insurance, of her $65,000 annual income as a self-employed mental health counselor.

"I knew it was going to be bad, but when I saw it, I thought, 'How am I going to do this? Is it even possible?" Merrill said.

If Congress doesn't extend the subsidies called Enhanced Premium Tax Credits by Dec. 31, premiums for ACA plans are set to skyrocket in Maine and across the country. In Maine, the average premium would increase 77%, according to the Maine Office of the Health Insurance Marketplace.

Nearly 65,000 Maine residents are on health insurance plans purchased through the marketplace. That includes people who are self-employed or don't have plans offered by their employer.

Most receive the subsidy and may have sticker shock as they shop for plans this weekend, with open enrollment starting Saturday on the state's online health insurance marketplace. Even before Saturday, Mainers can browse the website www.coverme.gov to see how much ACA health insurance would cost for 2026.

The amounts on the website now and what enrollees actually pay in January could be quite different, if Congress restores the subsidies.

Some families, depending on their income, age and where they live, will see premiums double, triple or even quadruple. A projected 8,000 Maine residents would become uninsured in 2026, rather than pay the higher premiums, according to an estimate from the Urban Institute, a national think tank.

Hilary Schneider, director of Maine's health insurance marketplace, said the "impact would be devastating." She said people may go uninsured or purchase plans with higher out-of-pocket costs.

Long term, Schneider said, having fewer people in the ACA insurance pools will put more upward pressure on costs.

"The people who choose to go uninsured will be mostly young, healthy folks," Schneider said. "As younger people move out of the market, that drives up insurance costs for all of us. We will see a spiral of increasing costs for everyone who remains covered."

Those increases could be avoided if Congress extends the subsidies and whether to do so is at the center of the federal government shutdown. Republicans argue the shutdown should end before negotiations over extending the tax credits begin. Democrats say extending the subsidies should be part of the negotiations to reopen the federal government.

For Merrill, who is single with two adult children, the increased health insurance costs would make it difficult for her to pay down $65,000 in student loan debt. Merrill said she went back to graduate school later in life to pursue her dream of opening a small business as a mental health counselor.

"I would likely have to shutter the doors of my business and go back to working for a company" to get employer-based health insurance, said Merrill, who became self-employed about five years ago. "You like to think that if you work hard and make the right decisions, that you'll be rewarded.

"In this case, it's a giant plot twist."

Maine residents like Ossian Riday are waiting to see whether they will have to pay much higher premiums in 2026.

Riday, 54, a self-employed software developer from Topsham, said his premiums would go from about $675 per month for a household of three, to $2,000 monthly. That's for a bronze plan, the cheapest available, with high deductibles. He said his family is healthy and doing well financially, so they can afford the higher costs, but for many the increases would be a struggle.

"What are we going to do? I don't know, but something has to give," Riday said. "These numbers are staggering."

"The impacts of these tax credits not being extended will be pretty extreme for people who get their insurance through the ACA marketplace," said Emma Wager, senior policy analyst for KFF's Program on the ACA. KFF is a national health policy think tank.

Chelsea Avirett, 45, of Rockland, said her ACA plan, which covers herself and her husband, is set to increase from about $1,100 per month to $1,500 if the credits aren't extended.

"That will be more than our mortgage payment, so it's a bit appalling," said Avirett, who is self-employed and runs an online job board. "It's really challenging for small business owners who don't have any other options for health insurance."

News Center Maine: 'I don't know what I am going to do'; 55,000 Mainers grapple with rising health care costs if ACA tax credits end

Nearly 55,000 Mainers rely on federal tax credits to help cover the cost of their monthly health care premiums through the Affordable Care Act, according to the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.

Those credits, enhanced under the American Rescue Plan Act in 2021, are set to expire on December 31 unless Congress votes to extend them leaving many Mainers anxious about how they'll afford coverage in the new year.

"That includes us," John Costin said. Costin, a small business owner in Sanford, said the tax credits make a huge difference for him and his wife.

Without them, he estimates their premium and out-of-pocket costs will increase by $25,000 next year. "That's not doable on our income."

Costin and a half-dozen others gathered outside Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins' Portland office to voice their concerns and call on the senator to do more. Collins' office did not provide a statement for this story.

One of the many Mainers in that category is Chenna Immel. She says she left her job due to her poor health and struggles to pay her current ACA rate of $25 a month.

Without the credits, that number would rise to $160.

"Now I do not know what is going to happen, and I am scared," she said. "It is only with the help of my family that I am getting all my bills paid."

Immel says she worries about the long-term impact if the credits aren't renewed, "I am worried about having to blow through my retirement, which would leave me more dependent on the system, which is not what I want to do."

Maine DHHS says rural households, such as those in Washington and Aroostook counties, are expected to be hit the hardest.

The department also estimates that middle-income Mainers single individuals earning $60,240 to $75,300 will see their monthly premium costs increase by $705 on average.

Cathy Rasco, a Portland business owner, expects her monthly premiums to rise more than 50 percent, from $840 to more than $1,300.

"I don't know how I am going to pay $15,000 just in premiums," she said. "I don't know what I am going to do. I may just not have insurance."

Portland physician Dr. Patrick Connolly says he's concerned about what higher health care costs could mean for patients. "They're going to not go to the doctor. They're going to wait till problems become big problems and unmanageable problems," he said.

The open enrollment for the ACA marketplace opens on Saturday, and Connolly says people should expect some sticker shock.