With open enrollment to buy health coverage for 2026 just weeks away, health advocates are stepping up calls for Congress to extend enhanced premium tax credits that will expire at the end of the year.
Ann Woloson, executive director of Consumers for Affordable Health Care, says 54,000 Mainers receive the enhanced premium tax credits on the online marketplace. And without those subsidies, many will no longer be able to afford coverage.
"Counties in northern and Down East Maine, including Aroostook and Washington County, have the highest potential increase in premiums: around 70% or more," she says.
Woloson says when don't have health insurance, that will affect the entire health system, because providers will likely have to provide more charity care.
"And it's not just hospitals," she says. "We're hearing about rural health clinics and private practitioners who are really struggling to maintain the access they provide, especially in rural areas of the state."
She and others are urging Congress to take action to extend the enhanced tax credits by the end of September, before open enrollment begins in November.
