For Immediate Release, April 29, 2025:
Today, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, Rep. Debbie Dingell, and Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced the Medicare for All Act in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate. Representative Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) is one of the original co-sponsors.
The “Medicare for All Act” would provide universal health coverage to all residents of the United States with no premiums, deductibles, or co-pays. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that implementing Medicare for All would save $650 billion annually. Health expenditures per person in the U.S. were $13,432 in 2023. This is over $3,700 more than any other high-income nation. In comparable countries $7,393 is the average amount spent on health per person, about half of what the U.S. spends.
With 40% of Maine’s hospitals at risk of closure and many Mainers without healthcare, now is the time for a practical, efficient and cost effective solution. Medicare for All would simplify our overly complex healthcare system and provide healthcare for all. It would secure our hospitals and ensure the people of our state and country have the healthcare they need so we can build healthy communities. Untethering healthcare from employment will foster innovation and creativity, as people will no longer be locked into jobs they’d like to leave but keep in order to maintain the health insurance they need to provide healthcare for their families and afford care for complex conditions.
“At a time when devastating cuts to Medicaid funding are being debated in Congress, Maine AllCare applauds Representative Pingree for her consistent leadership protecting existing healthcare and supporting universal healthcare,”said Dr. Julie Pease Chair of Maine AllCare, “Absent leadership like Rep. Pingree’s and policy changes like Medicare for All, Maine people will suffer, Maine people will die, and Maine’s health care system will collapse.”
Maine AllCare is also working to address this problem in Maine with two bills in the Maine Legislature. The first is LD 1269 Resolve, to Study the Costs and Funding of a Universal Health Care Plan for Maine. The resolution would direct the Office of Affordable Health Care (OAHC), in consultation with the Department of Health and Human Services to examine the costs and potential funding of a publicly funded universal health care plan for Maine. The All Maine Health Program prepared by the team at Maine AllCare and introduced by Representative Mastracchio would serve as the model for the plan studied by OAHC. The report would be submitted to the Joint Standing Committee on Health Coverage, Insurance and Financial Services no later than December 3, 2025.
The second bill is not yet released from the revisor’s office and is Maine AllCare’s model of universal health care for Maine. The All Maine Health Plan is a publicly funded universal health plan that will provide comprehensive healthcare for all Mainers. Our plan covers all necessary care, including dental, vision, hearing, mental health, addiction treatment, prescription drugs, medical equipment and supplies, and hospital, outpatient and home care. There will be no patient deductibles, or unpredictable out-of-pocket costs and minimal co-payments, if any. The system is envisioned as one that is a simpler payment system that pays doctors, hospitals, and other practitioners adequately and on time, and would help grow our health care workforce.
Public Hearings are currently unscheduled, but will occur in the upcoming weeks in front of the Maine Joint Standing Committee on Health Coverage, Insurance and Financial Services. Both bills are presented by Representative Mastracchio of Sanford.
Maine AllCare is a state chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program. Maine AllCare promotes the establishment of publicly funded health care coverage for all Maine residents. This system must be efficient, financially sound, politically sustainable and must provide benefits fairly distributed to all. Maine AllCare advocates that health care, a basic necessity, be treated as a public good, since it is fundamental to our well-being as individuals and as a democratic nation.