In just a few weeks, enhanced premium tax credits that make health insurance on the individual and small group markets more affordable for 54,000 Mainers will expire.
At a roundtable at Greater Portland Health in South Portland Monday organized by Governor Janet Mills and Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, consumers swapped stories — and numbers. Because without enhanced premium tax credits, they're facing exponential increases in their premiums next year. Some said they'll have to pay tens of thousands of dollars. Ossian Riday said his premiums will more than double to $29,000 a year.
"And my family's on one of the lowest plans possible," he said.
Riday is a software developer in Topsham. He said the Affordable Care Act's online marketplace made it possible for him to start his business, and he believes health care should be affordable for everyone.
"We should be able to go through life not worrying about bankruptcy, not worrying about financial disaster if we get sick," he said.
Bethany Allen is facing a roughly $500-a-month increase in premiums next year for her family. She owns Harvest Tide Organics in Bowdoinham. She also credits the ACA for making it possible to own her farm business. Going without insurance, she said, is not an option.
"I just know that life is really fragile," Allen said. "These things can change in a second. An arm can get broken, at like, the turn of a head, you know. And then farming is also very, very unpredictable. Our whole livelihood relies on us being able to do stuff with our bodies. And if you're unwell, we just can't even do our jobs. So healthcare is really important."
"This is the face of Maine," Congresswoman Chellie Pingree told the group. "This is the face of the Maine economy."
Pingree said Maine's economy will suffer if the enhanced premium tax credits aren't renewed by the end of the year. And it won't just affect the consumers who rely on them, she said.
"We are really on a catastrophic cliff here that's impacting individual families but will impact our whole state and our whole nation," said Pingree.
Because when people drop out of the health insurance market, she said, uncompensated care goes up. That strains providers, who often have to pass those increased costs on to other consumers. State officials said that 2,000 Mainers have already canceled coverage for next year.
Governor Janet Mills is urging Congress to take immediate action. During the roundtable discussion, she recalled past bipartisan efforts that made meaningful improvements for Americans, from establishing Social Security, to the Interstate Highway system, to Medicare.
"And yet today while millions of Americans are unable to afford basic, lifesaving health care, a universal need that requires federal action, the federal government does nothing," Mills said.
Some Republican lawmakers are proposing alternatives to the enhanced premium tax credits. Congresswoman Pingree said she's open to discussing other ideas. But in the near term, she said, the enhanced subsidies should be extended for at least two years.
