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The crisis in healthcare affordability is about to get worse.
Last week, the Maine Bureau of Insurance released approved rate increases for health insurance for 2027 — and the news is bad for consumers.
Mainers who receive their health insurance through the individual market, many of whom are self-employed or not offered coverage through work, will see rates increase 13.5% For the small group market, the increase will be 14.8%. That’s a double-digit increase — again.
“It’s really a perfect storm,” said Kate Ende, policy director for Consumers for Affordable Health Care, a nonprofit that helps people navigate access to health care. “Whether you’re losing Medicaid — MaineCare — or you’re losing coverage because you simply can’t afford it anymore because premiums have just skyrocketed, in both situations you’re losing access, and you’re less likely to seek preventive and routine care.”
The state has previously estimated that 31,000 of those people would lose their coverage because they no longer qualify or because the additional paperwork will be too much of a barrier.
Ende, with Consumers for Affordable Health Care, said people who are still eligible may find the new requirements confusing or more difficult because they will have to report every six months instead of once a year and will have to do more to prove they are working or are too sick to work.
“People have busy lives, and they’re already juggling a lot,” Ende said. “People are moving, and they may not be at the same physical address they were. They may have unstable housing. There’s a lot of reasons why these overly burdensome paperwork requirements can cause somebody who is eligible to lose coverage.”
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Kate Ende, policy director at Consumers for Affordable Health Care in Augusta, said the care that will remain for immigrants losing coverage is a patchwork and not a substitute for comprehensive care.
“These programs aren’t going to cover ongoing medications,” Ende said. “They’re not going to be covering ambulance rides. Oftentimes, lab work is done by a third party — so it’s not a replacement for comprehensive coverage by any means.”
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Kate Ende, policy director at Consumers for Affordable Health Care in Augusta, said the care that will remain for immigrants losing coverage is a patchwork and not a substitute for comprehensive care.
“These programs aren’t going to cover ongoing medications,” Ende said. “They’re not going to be covering ambulance rides. Oftentimes, lab work is done by a third party — so it’s not a replacement for comprehensive coverage by any means.”
