Maine must act now.

Last week Maine’s Insurance Commissioner hosted an open forum with the five insurance companies requesting insurance premium rate increases of 20-30%. Maine people who testified described the rate increases as “catastrophic” and many speculated that they would not be able to afford healthcare, thus putting lives at risk.  The insurers shared eleven reasons behind the rate increases. Three of the reasons: inflation, reduced federal funding, and tariffs are outside of the control of Maine state leaders.

Maine AllCare believes that EITHER Maine can reform the system and control many of our health care costs, provide comprehensive healthcare for all Mainers and secure our hospitals with a single payer OR Maine can accept higher healthcare premiums that push Mainers off of their healthcare and put Maine lives at risk.

Eight Healthcare Cost Drivers within Maine’s Control

Maine AllCare believes that it is critical that Maine leaders examine these cost drivers, and move forward to implement universal healthcare now.

  1. High hospital and provider costs: A statewide plan could cut back on paperwork, allow drug price negotiations, reduce provider billing costs, and replace five different systems competing rules with one streamlined consistent system.
  2. Income based premiums: Under a universal health care plan people under 65 would pay according to their income.
  3. Increasing health issues: Maine people are getting sicker. If we had universal healthcare, people could receive healthcare when they need it rather than delay care and treatment because they cannot afford the cost of pills and providers.
  4. Rising Drug costs: Drug prices are high and increasing with tariffs. With universal healthcare the state could negotiate the cost of medications with Big Pharma, and could explore partnerships with other states.
  5. Eligibility: Fewer Mainers are eligible for the ACA and MaineCare. This is leading to more Mainers who will transition to for-profit insurers with higher overhead. A single plan would decrease overhead and cut waste.
  6. Coverage gaps: With the end of automatic enrollment in the ACA and MaineCare, people are more likely to disenroll. Maine could develop what is called “a reinsurance plan” with universal healthcare that prevents coverage gaps by automatically re-enrolling people annually.
  7. Administrative Overhead: Up to 20% of premium cost is tied to administrative costs. As insurer administrative costs increase, so do premiums. MaineCare and traditional Medicare administrative costs are less and show that a public plan can reduce administrative costs.
  8. Profits: For profit insurance must make a profit for their investors. Public insurance provides healthcare to the people, and is responsible to patients, providers and the taxpayers instead of investors seeking to profit.