We need your help to get signatures!
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| Health care is once again a top issue for Maine voters. Last fall, a small group of Mainers filed a universal health care ballot initiative with the Secretary of State: a Resolve, directing the Maine legislature to develop legislation establishing a publicly funded system of health care coverage for all Maine residents. (You can download a copy of the Resolve here).
The board of Maine AllCare’s 501c4, HealthCare for All Maine, has begun to organize the signature gathering effort, with an ambitious goal of gathering more than 100,000 signatures this year in order to get the Resolve on the November 2027 ballot. |
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We believe that NOW IS THE TIME to show our elected officials that Maine people WANT, NEED and DESERVE HEALTH CARE.
Sign up to volunteer HERE with the HealthCare for All Maine signature gathering effort.
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Looking Ahead: Our 2027 Legislative Strategy
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| While we have been tracking relevant bills during this short legislative session (see below for more on private equity transactions), we are also looking ahead to 2027—and to a Maine law that is already on the books.
In 2021, the Maine Legislature quietly took an historic step toward universal health care. Public Law 2021, Chapter 391 established the Maine Health Care Plan, affirming that all Mainers deserve access to medically necessary care and that the state has a responsibility to ensure it. The law also calls for the creation of a Maine Health Care Board to design a comprehensive state-based universal health care plan. |
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| Maine AllCare believes Maine shouldn’t wait. We will be reaching out to legislators soon to build support for removing the contingency language from the law so the Maine Health Care Board can be appointed and begin its work. Launching the Board would allow Maine to design a plan, analyze costs, pursue federal waivers, and move meaningfully toward universal coverage.
We are also engaging gubernatorial candidates on this issue. See more below—and stay tuned for additional ways you can support this effort! |
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| However, the law includes a major barrier: it cannot take effect until Congress passes legislation allowing states to establish and finance their own universal health care systems. That federal action has not yet occurred, not for lack of trying (read more about the State-Based Universal Health Care Act here). This leaves Maine’s plan stalled before the first step—the creation of the Health Care Board—can even begin.
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Reaching out to gubernatorial candidates
Maine AllCare has also been reaching out to candidates in the 2026 gubernatorial race to discuss the future of health care in Maine. So far, candidates Shenna Bellows, Rick Bennett, Jason Cherry, John Glowa, Troy Jackson, and Nirav Shah have responded to an initial survey of ours, and we have followed up with each of them, plus Hannah Pingree—either directly or through their staff.
In these conversations, we walk candidates through the current health care financing structure in Maine and the U.S., the complexity of our payment systems compared with other countries, and why health care works better when it is treated as a public good rather than a market commodity. We also review current federal and state efforts and discuss how Maine could move forward. In particular, we focus on amending existing law (as described above) so the state can appoint a Maine Health Care Board and begin planning a universal health care plan for Maine. We will continue engaging campaigns and offering resources to help ensure this issue remains part of the conversation about Maine’s future. |
Protecting Our Health Care Infrastructure
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| Last year, Maine AllCare co-championed legislation (LD 985) with Senator Mike Tipping to place a moratorium on private equity acquisitions of Maine hospitals. While the final bill created a one-year pause rather than the five years originally proposed, a legislative commission was formed to study how private equity and related ownership structures affect health care delivery in Maine. Maine AllCare closely followed the commission’s work last fall. (See our booklet here for more resources on the impact of private equity transactions). |
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| This session, we testified in support of several bills developed from the commission’s recommendations to strengthen oversight of private equity and real estate investment trust (REIT) involvement in health care. The proposals included requiring deeper review of ownership structures in health care transactions (LD 2190), prohibiting certain sale-leaseback arrangements with REITs (LD 2197), limiting excessive debt-loading in acquisitions (LD 2198), and strengthening state oversight of transactions involving private equity and similar investors (LD 2201).
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| Much to our disappointment, at the committee’s most recent work session, lawmakers voted down LD 2190, LD 2197, and LD 2198. They did, however, unanimously support moving forward with LD 2201 (strengthening state oversight), with amendments to be drafted that would add more specific criteria when major health care transactions are reviewed by the state. Committee staff have indicated that these amendments will include aspects of LD 2197 and LD 2198). We await these amendments to see whether LD 2201 moves forward with substantive restrictions on private equity acquisition of Maine hospitals. |
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“My study and review of private equity takeovers of health care providers leads me to the belief that for-profit private equity ownership and operation of health care providers, particularly both rural and urban hospitals, is logically and economically inconsistent with the health care goals and priorities of the State of Maine,” testified Peter Murray of Portland; an attorney who worked on drafting the bill that placed a moratorium on private equity acquisition of Maine hospitals. “LD 2201 addresses private equity ownership as a regulatory matter, subjecting private equity acquisition transactions to various levels of scrutiny, but not banning private equity outright. In my judgment this approach, while well-intentioned, is not likely to be effective.”
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Casey Means nomination for Surgeon General
Our colleagues at Healthcare Advocates for Maine (HAME) have developed materials to oppose the nomination of Casey Means for Surgeon General. A social media wellness influencer who does not hold a medical license, Means has drawn criticism as one of the least qualified nominees for the role.
The Senate Health Committee held a hearing on her nomination in late February and could vote soon on whether to advance it to the full Senate. Three Republican members—Bill Cassidy, Lisa Murkowski, and Susan Collins—remain undecided after Means gave ambiguous answers about vaccines.
HAME has prepared a brief blurb that Mainers can send to Senator Susan Collins and a related statement they plan to share with media and other health advocacy groups. You can sign on here. |
Maine AllCare – Our Story
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| Maine AllCare has been advocating for better health care in Maine for the last 15 years. We are a small group of Mainers, the majority of us volunteers, committed to bringing comprehensive, affordable health care to Maine. Over the years, Maine AllCare has rallied, testified, educated, organized, petitioned, researched, analyzed data, and built coalitions across the state to advance this cause, and will continue to do so. Thank you to those who have been a part of our journey to date, and welcome to those who are joining. |
| We are excited to welcome Susan Feiner to the Maine AllCare Board! After finishing her PhD in Economics in 1981, she taught at Virginia Commonwealth University and at Hampton University. In 1995, Susan joined the faculty at the University of Southern Maine (USM) where her position was split between economics and women’s studies. Susan has published five books, dozens of articles, and secured several million dollars in grant support for faculty development projects that taught hundreds of economics professors how to integrate race and gender into their economics classes. |
At USM, Susan developed a course titled “Critical Thinking about Health Care Economics.” Teaching that class immersed her in the health care reform literature. Too few Americans realize that there are many ways to organize and fund universal health care systems. The situation is not at all “free markets and private health care financing” versus “total government control of health care.” In fact, the majority of universal health care systems contain a mix of public, not-for-profit health care, doctors in private practice, and for-profit hospitals. Despite varying degrees of public and private medicine, one characteristic shared by all the Universal systems is that health care financing (i.e., how health care is paid for) is never for-profit. It’s that reliance on for-profit health insurance that marks the US as both unique and failing.
“The US devotes 19% of GDP to health care while leaving almost 10% of the population uncovered. In contrast, the EU plus Japan spend on average 11% to 12% of GDP on health care and everyone’s covered. Getting the U.S. to universal healthcare is the pressing economic issue of our time.”
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| Thank you to all who volunteer their time in writing letters to the editors, op-eds, and testimony in support of publicly funded universal health care.
Our Board Member Michael Bacon leads a Letter to the Editor writing team. Email us at info@maineallcare.org if you’d like to join or just want help writing your own!
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| Recent letters by us, volunteers, and community members include:
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Thank you for supporting our work towards healthcare for all Mainers!
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Recycle to support our work
Clynk is a simple way to support Maine AllCare’s work—just fill up a Clynk bag with your returnable bottles and cans, put on a MAC sticker, and drop them off at a nearby Hannaford store.
Clynk bags are available at participating Hannaford stores for a small fee. To get MAC stickers, contact us and we’ll put them in the mail to you.
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Our Mission
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.
We advocate 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. |
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