WHAT THEY'RE SAYING: "SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS IN MAINE FACING HUGE SPIKES IN ACA PREMIUMS"

The following information was released by the Maine Democratic Party:

Collins refused to extend ACA tax credits, now "Mainers consider forgoing health insurance due to spiking costs"

Augusta, Maine With only 2 weeks left in the CoverME ACA marketplace's open enrollment period for plans that start January 1, impacted Mainers continue to face sticker shock over skyrocketing insurance rates since Susan Collins refused to include an extension for ACA tax credits in the deal to reopen the government and repeatedly voting against a bill that would have extended the credits.

Recent reporting highlights how small businesses and entrepreneurs are set to experience "some of the largest increases," that could shutter entire businesses. According to the director of Maine's health insurance marketplace, "2,000 people who buy marketplace health insurance have already canceled their 2026 coverage."

Read some of the stories:

Portland Press Herald: Small business owners in Maine facing huge spikes in ACA premiums

Mary Link loves her job as a self-employed business owner, helping to run a home improvement company with her husband.

But the Links, like other small business owners across the state, are facing a large increase in their Affordable Care Act health insurance premiums if certain tax credits expire at the end of the year. Without them, the Windham couple's monthly health insurance bill, for the same plan, would more than double next year.

Mary Link said she and her husband make about $90,000 per year and will lose their tax credits if they're not extended. Without the subsidy, their monthly health insurance bill would jump from $954 this year to $2,147 next year, if they kept the same plan.

"This is disgusting," she said. "It sucks."

Corey Husak, director of tax policy for the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning national think tank, said about 4.4 million small business owners or self-employed workers across the country would be impacted if the credits expire.

Because most small business owners skew toward the higher end of the income scale for ACA enrollees and benefit more from the enhanced tax credits, they will face an average increase of about $1,500 annually, Husak said.

"These credits help prevent 'job lock,' which allows people to strike out on their own, become entrepreneurs and not be stuck in a job because of health insurance reasons," Husak said. "We don't want to have health insurance stand in the way of dynamism in the U.S. economy."

Federal data shows that people who are self-employed or run small businesses have made up a sizable percentage of Maine's ACA enrollees.

The U.S. Treasury Department estimates that 15,640 of Maine's 2022 enrollees about 26% of all enrollees in the state that year were small business owners or self-employed. The 2022 data was the latest available federal analysis.

In 2025, the total number of ACA enrollees in Maine was 64,678.

Susan Gallo, 60, of Cumberland, and executive director of Maine Lakes a nonprofit advocacy group that works to protect Maine's lakes and ponds said her monthly ACA premiums would jump from $600 to $1,600 if the enhanced tax credits expire.

Gallo said she doesn't know what she would do to absorb the hefty increases.

"It makes me question, 'Should I stop working?'" Gallo said. "Do I go to my (nonprofit) board and say 'I can't make this work?' I don't want to do fundraising to pay for my insurance. I want to fundraise for our programs."

Penny Collins, 46, of New Gloucester, said she joined her husband's independent engineering firm in 2021, giving up a career in human resources and the health benefits that came with it, to expand the family's business.

"We would have been very reluctant to make this leap without the ACA marketplace," Collins said.

Now, their family of four is facing insurance premiums increasing from about $15,000 per year to $33,000 for an equivalent plan.

The Collins family earns more than 400% of the federal poverty level which is $128,600 for a family of four and their health care premiums have increased over the past four years as their income has gone up. Collins said she felt like those were fair increases, but if the premiums more than double next year, it would hamper their firm.

Collins said they might have to stop funding their retirement account.

"I shouldn't have to feel like we need to give up paying into our retirement account so we can take the kids to the doctor," Collins said. "We are loving having our own business. We've crafted the American dream, and I don't want us to have to give it up."

Many people are anticipating huge premium increases and are already canceling plans.

While small business owners would experience some of the largest increases, most ACA enrollees will see a spike in premiums if the credits expire. In Maine, the average health care premium increase would be 77%, according to Maine's Health Insurance Marketplace.

The Urban Institute estimates 8,000 Maine residents would go uninsured rather than pay the higher premiums next year.

Portland Press Herald: Maine small business owners bracing for soaring health care premiums if ACA tax credits expire

"Out-of-pocket expenses for our family for health insurance next year will be upwards of $42,000," said Ossian Riday, 54, a self-employed software developer from Topsham. "That is basically the equivalent of buying a new car every single year."

Riday, speaking during the event held at Greater Portland Health in South Portland, said small business owners "need solutions for health care coverage without fear of financial disaster."

Another set of subsidies that helps reduce premiums for enrollees, the Advanced Premium Tax Credits, were part of the original ACA law and have no expiration date.

The enhanced subsidies were included in the coronavirus relief package first approved by Congress in 2021 and then extended a year later through 2025. During that time, ACA enrollment has soared nationally, going from 11.2 million in 2021 to more than 23 million this year, according to federal data.

New Gloucester resident Penny Collins, who along with her husband owns a small engineering firm, said they would lose their tax credits, causing their health insurance premiums to skyrocket from about $15,000 per year to $33,000 per year for an equivalent plan.

"It's very upsetting," Collins said during the event Monday. "Our health insurance next year would cost more than our mortgage, car payment and utility bills combined."

Hilary Schneider, director of Maine's Health Insurance Marketplace, said 2,000 people have already canceled their ACA plans for 2026.

Bethany Allen, of Bowdoinham, owner of Harvest Tide Organics farm, said she's not yet sure how much her family's premium will increase if the credits end. But she said the stability of the ACA has helped her business, and that the unknown caused by the credits ending would hurt their farm.

"The ACA has allowed us to recruit, hire and retain employees," Allen said during the event. "It's provided the equity and consistency that we need. It's allowed us to grow our business."

Maine Morning Star: Mainers consider forgoing health insurance due to spiking costs

Rachel Phipps, a retired social worker from Kennebunk, was diagnosed last month with skin cancer, which she has been getting treatments for. If the cancer isn't gone by her follow up appointment in December, Phipps said she won't be seeking additional treatment because her and her husband have decided to go without health insurance.

Phipps currently pays about $200 a month for her marketplace health insurance plan, covering herself and her husband, who owns a small woodworking business in Sanford. But without federal subsidies, her monthly premium will go up to $2,000 with an almost $15,000 out-of-pocket deductible, which they can't afford.

"So I might be one of the 51,000 people that they know will die next year without the extension of the tax subsidies," she said, citing a June study from the Yale School of Public Health, which warned that the proposed changes to Medicaid and increasing health insurance costs could lead to tens of thousands of preventable deaths.

That estimate was even before the pending expiration of the enhanced premium tax credits, which subsidize the cost of marketplace health insurance for millions of Americans, including approximately 60,000 Mainers.

Since Congress has not yet extended those credits, thousands of Maine residents who are predominantly small business owners, older people or individuals that buy plans on the marketplace now face significant increases in health costs. Experts are warning that the ripple effects of this increase will be felt by everyone, and will eventually result in an overburdened health care system with reduced services.

More than 2,000 people who buy marketplace health insurance have already canceled their 2026 coverage, according to Hilary Schneider, director of the Office of the Health Insurance Marketplace. Thousands have also chosen to purchase high deductible plans, she said, making themselves liable to pay large amounts out of pocket, because that is all they can afford.

"Even for those who have enrolled and have decided that they can afford the 2026 coverage, they are paying more than last year," she said. "This is another necessary household cost, and it is rising as household budgets continue to get squeezed."

These cheap plans don't cover most services something that customers often learn after they are already on the line for those costs, which Carey said can be worse than being uninsured.

Ossian Riday of Topsham told the panel that he originally delayed starting his own business because he was worried about insurance costs, and was only able to after the enhanced premium tax credits were put into place.

Last year, Riday was paying roughly $8,000 a year for his family, which rose to $13,000 this year. Now, if the subsidy expires, Riday's family faces an annual rate of $29,000, which with out-of-pocket costs could go as high as $42,000.

"This is basically the equivalent of purchasing a new car every year," Riday said. "The medical insurance system in the U.S. is broken, and without government intervention, it will only get worse."

Since the federal government shutdown concluded without an extension of the credits, Mainers have been warning about what their projected costs would mean for their lives and livelihoods.

At a Friday press conference hosted by the Maine Democratic Party, Portland-based artist Justin Levesque shared how he was born with a chronic condition called hemophilia, which makes him dependent on medication.

Levesque said his insurance premium could double or triple, going up to $600 or $700 a month, which would throw his future as an artist into question.

"If folks can't access their medication because they can't even afford the premium, we're going to see deaths, and we're going to see people coming to harm," Levesque said. "The ACA, being able to afford it, has changed my life. It has allowed me to follow my dreams and I'm really worried about the future."