The Big Budget Bill’s Impact on Maine’s Health System: More Maine Residents Uninsured, Higher Health Care Costs, and More Consequences of the Many Cuts to Care - Families USA Skip to Main Content
06.20.2025 / Press Release

The Big Budget Bill’s Impact on Maine’s Health System: More Maine Residents Uninsured, Higher Health Care Costs, and More Consequences of the Many Cuts to Care

New Families USA Analysis Details How Steep Cuts Will Hurt Maine Residents

AUGUSTA, ME – A new fact sheet from Families USA details how the pending budget bill, set to be voted on by the Senate in the next week or so, will harm Maine’s health system, including cutting off coverage for nearly 40,000 Mainers, making it harder for people to get and maintain coverage, and taking away crucial patient protections for children. The bill also drives up costs for those buying insurance through the Marketplace, skyrocketing premiums and increasing out-of-pocket costs while taking away crucial premium tax credits that made coverage more affordable.

“The cuts to Medicaid and the ACA will have devastating and dramatic impacts on health coverage, care, and costs for American families, and in many ways especially in Maine. The cuts will not just mean that tens of thousands of Maine residents lose coverage, but federal cuts will force state budgets into crisis, forcing states to drastically scale back services, leading to closures of rural hospitals and community clinics,” said Anthony Wright, executive director of Families USA. “Senator Collins wants to do what is best for Mainers and must stand up against tax cuts and side with patients and health providers and plans who oppose this bill that harms access and affordability of health care for so many Maine working families.”

“If Congress makes these cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and the Marketplace, tens of thousands of Maine people will lose their health care and more of our hospitals and clinics may shutter. The state and working Mainers will be asked to pick up the bill, and cuts to other essential programs will almost certainly follow,” said Ann Danforth, policy advocate at Maine Equal Justice. “This bill puts the greatest harm on Maine people who can least afford it, and works against the will of Maine voters who overwhelmingly approved Medicaid expansion just eight years ago.”

“Mainers take care of each other — our leaders should be standing up for those values in Washington,” said Maine People’s Alliance co-director Amy Halsted. “This bill is a direct attack on Maine’s communities, threatening the health and livelihoods of Maine families to pay for a huge tax cut for billionaires. This is not what we stand for.”

The proposed cuts are in opposition with the voters when 82% of adults nationwide — including 67% of Republicans want Congress to maintain or increase Medicaid spending.

Maine’s Medicaid program (MaineCare) covers 392,000 children and adults, including:

  • 2 in 7 Maine residents.
  • 140,000 children — 50% of all children in Maine.
  • 109,700 seniors and people with disabilities.

Marketplace coverage, CoverME, (available for individuals and families who do not qualify for MaineCare but also do not have employer sponsored coverage) serves:

  • 64,600 Maine residents.
  • 8,300 small business owners in Maine and over 13,000 self-employed Maine residents.
  • About 85% of enrollees in the state who received an advanced premium tax credit to help them pay their premium.

Families USA, the longtime health consumer advocate, is organizing with groups in North Carolina and across the nation to protect against care cuts that would force Americans to face increased costs and the loss of health coverage. The Families USA website has a plethora of materials on how its partners are working to defend Medicaid, and has facts sheets on the overall importance of Medicaid to people, the economy, and the health care system, how work reporting requirements would undermine access to Medicaid, and how cuts harm families and communities.