Call To ActionContact your Members of Congress to Oppose Medicaid Cuts!The U.S. Senate is now considering the Reconciliation Budget Bill that was passed by the House on a party line vote. Medicaid and Medicare face major cuts in the federal budget overseen by Maine’s Senior Senator Susan Collins who serves as the Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee. These cuts would be deadly for our healthcare system which is already incredibly precarious with 42% of our hospitals at risk of closure—read more here. Please contact your members of Congress to demand that they preserve and protect Medicaid funding. It is especially important to ask Senator Collins to use her leadership position to fully fund Medicaid without work requirements. Senator Susan Collins; Senator Angus King; Representative Jared Golden; Representative Chellie Pingree Want to do more? We’re joining June 14 activities, a Portland rally by National Nurses United on July 1, and more. Sign up here to learn more about this and other upcoming volunteering opportunities with Maine AllCare, including the Common Ground Fair in September. |
|
|
Maine AllCare NewsTHANK YOU to all who testified on our bills! |
|
|
| In addition, former board member Geoff Gratwick, M.D., convened a working group to study the impact of private equity on Maine hospitals. Partnering with Senator Tipping, we introduced a bill calling for a moratorium on private equity acquisitions of Maine hospitals. The moratorium gives lawmakers time to develop proper safeguards and protect Maine’s health care system from the kinds of profit-driven practices that have led to hospital closures and reduced care quality in other states.
Read further below for a recap and update on each bill. |
| Latest Update: One of our bills asked for a new study on the cost of implementing universal healthcare from the Maine Office of Affordable Healthcare (OAHC). The HCIFS Committee asked OAHC to examine all existing studies on universal healthcare in Maine, including the ones we’ve commissioned, and return to the Committee in September with a plan. Rep. Cimino (R) noted that she and others were unfamiliar with past studies on universal healthcare and asked for copies of them.
The head of the OAHC indicated there were opportunities for public engagement, and that’s where you come in. Over the upcoming months, we will need your help on how to further engage members of the Health Coverage, Insurance, and Financial Services (HCIFS) committee and the OAHC, so let us know if you wish to volunteer! |
| Pictured below: Maine AllCare Board Members David Jolly & Louise Secordel |
|
|
| Outcome: This bill received 75 testimonies at the 5/14/25 joint public hearing. While legislators agreed on the problems of our current health care system, the committee voted Ought Not to Pass on 5/21/25, citing concerns about federal approval and resources. However, the committee Chairs also have general “concept” or “carry over” bills (LD 378 and LD 663) that leave an opportunity open for a universal coverage proposal to be brought in January. |
| “The system is collapsing but we’re not willing to take the hard steps to fix it because of political realities.” ~ Rep. Mastraccio |
LD 1269: Resolve, To Study the Costs & Funding of a Universal Health Care Plan for MaineRecap: This resolve asks the Maine Office of Affordable Health Care (OAHC) to study how a publicly funded, universal healthcare system could work in our state. Outcome: This bill received 22 testimonies for the 5/14/25 joint public hearing. This fiscal analysis requires specialized modelling that OAHC would have to contract out, estimated at about $450,000. On 5/21/25, the committee voted Ought Not to Pass with a letter, stating a lack of desire to conduct another study, especially if the financial model depends on federal approval and/or resources. The letter directs OAHC to review prior studies and present legislative recommendations to the committee in September 2025. |
 |
| Maine AllCare leaders & supporters at the State House: (left to right) Dr. Henk Goorhuis, David Jolly, Rollie Feuchtenberger, and Dr. Tom Sterne. |
LD 985: An Act to Impose a Moratorium on the Ownership or Operation of Hospitals in the State by Private Equity Companies or Real Estate Investment TrustsRecap: This bill would place a five-year pause on private equity firms buying or operating Maine hospitals. The moratorium gives lawmakers time to develop proper safeguards from profit-driven activities that has led to hospital closures and reduced care quality in other states. Outcome: This bill received 20 testimonies at the 5/6/25 public hearing, and on 5/22/25, the committee voted Ought to Pass with Amendments. Originally proposing a five-year moratorium, the bill was shortened to a one-year pause. Maine joins at least 13 other state legislatures that have introduced bills this legislative session related to addressing private equity in healthcare. Read more in our recent press release here. |
| ACTION STILL NEEDED! The next steps are a vote in the Legislature! We do not know the day of the vote yet, but we urge you to call your State Senator and your State Representative to support LD 985 now! Find your State Representative here and your State Senator here. |
Hancock, Maine calls on State Legislature to Fix HealthcareThe town of Hancock recently joined other towns across Maine that have passed resolutions urging the Maine Legislature to ensure health care for all. With a show of hands at their May 13 town meeting, Hancock residents voted for and passed the resolve by a wide margin. The Maine AllCare team wants to especially thank Phil Bailey and Valerie Dornan for all the work they did to make this happen, including gathering more than 125 petition signatures to get the resolve on the town warrant. Citizens in Penobscot, Surry, and Hancock have now passed this resolution: “Be it Resolved that the citizens of [town name] call on the Maine Legislature to create a publicly funded health care plan that provides every Maine resident with comprehensive medical care.” |
|
|
Federal Advocacy |
The Medicare for All Act 2025:On 4/29/25, the federal Medicare for All Act was reintroduced in the U.S. House (H.R. 3069) by Rep Pramila Japayal and Rep Debbie Dingell and in the U.S. Sentate (S.1506) by Sen. Bernie Sanders. It would establish a national health insurance program that guarantees coverage, comprehensive benefits, and zero out-of-pocket costs for all U.S. residents. For more information about the bills and related fact sheets, visit PNHP’s webpage. Maine’s Rep. Chellie Pingree has signed on as a bill Co-Sponsor. “At a time when cuts to Medicaid funding are affecting all Mainers and the cuts being debated in Congress right now will be devastating. 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.” Representative Jared Golden Co-Sponsored Medicare for All his first session in Congress but has not continued his support, citing instead other paths forward. Senator King and Senator Collins have yet to support the bill. The State-Based Universal Health Care Act:We are monitoring other activity at the federal level that would facilitate states in establishing their own universal coverage. The State-Based Universal Health Care Act (SBUHCA, known as suh-boo-ka) of 2023 (HR 6270) and 2024 (S4817) is likely to soon get reintroduced in Congress. More information on SBUHCA is available on the One Payer States resources webpage. Should this bill pass, the Maine Health Care Act of 2021 (LD 1045, which passed and was enacted on 7/1/21) will trigger and would set up a Maine Health Care Board.
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
Maine AllCare – Our Story
|
| 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. |
Spotlight on Tom Sterne, Board Secretary/Treasurer
His interests include medical (and general) education, health care financing and the care of minority and immigrant/refugee populations. He is fluent in Spanish and has worked in the Guatemalan highlands. Tom is married and lives with his wife Tereta and their dog Tiber in an 1860s home in Bridgton. Tom joined the Maine AllCare Board in 2018. He believes that : |
Before moving to Maine, Dr. Tom Sterne, MD, M.Sc, worked as a primary care physician, teacher, and administrator in the Boston area for years, and was the Medical Director for two community health centers, with appointments at Mass. General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. With a background in health economics and administration, he has been a longtime member of Physicians for a National Health Program.
|
|
|
|
Spotlight on Marie Louise Follayttar, Director of Communications & PartnershipsMarie joined Maine AllCare in January for strategic direction and execution in our communications and partnerships. Previously, Marie was the Co-Founder and Director of Mainers for Accountable Leadership (MFAL) where she co-led a Webby-nominated campaign with our ally organization “Be A Hero” founded by the late Ady Barkan. Marie helped found and launch 4 other organizations including the Poor People’s Campaign of Maine with Rev. Dr. Barber, Moral Movement Maine (now at Maine People’s Alliance and staffed by Rev. Jodi Hayashida), Suit Up Maine (staffed part time through our ally MECEP). Marie is also an artist who has run Shalom House’s art program and served as a Grief Facilitator in the Center for Grieving Children’s Intercultural Program. She began advocating for universal healthcare at age 13 and is a long-term disability and human rights advocate. To know Marie is to know her words so we’re including a section of her testimony in support of our bills this session: |
|
|
| Barriers to care, mistrust in the system, and the constant need to prove one’s worthiness for treatment allow bias to flourish. They prevent accountability, continuity, and healing. Only by shifting to a universal model can we begin to repair the deep harm caused by othering people who rely on medical care to survive.
No one chooses to juggle dozens of doctors, conditions, medications, IV fluids, and a growing list of diagnostic tests. It’s messy, scary, and exhausting. There is a pathology in our culture that judges and distances itself from illness. I started to understand the stigma of mental health at age 13, when my father struggled to access care in a system without mental health parity. We are not just facing a healthcare crisis today—we are hurtling toward a cataclysm, as post-COVID conditions and an aging population strain an already broken system in our state. We cannot continue to disable our people and leave them with no healthcare. The emergency may have stopped for the state, but it’s only begun for the individual and their family left behind. We live in a world where we poison the air, the water, and the soil we grow our food in. Our food and products are recalled for long-term health risks. Our indoor air quality harms us. We are poisoning people—and then refusing to care for them. Today, we have a chance to build a system of care. A system where no one has to fight like hell just to stay alive.” |
|
|
What We’re Reading |
|
|
|
|
Your Voices |
|
|
|
| *Fun Fact: Dr. Daniel Bryant, who is one of the lead authors of our universal healthcare bill, read a letter to the editor written by Michael. Dan reached out to the paper and asked to be connected to him. The rest, as they say, is history, and now Mike is on our Board of Directors! |