What Mainers are Saying: “Susan Collins Refuses to Protect Our Health Care”

Augusta, Maine - In case you missed it, Mainers continue to criticize Susan Collins for refusing to lift a finger to extend the ACA tax credits that are set to expire, forcing Mainers' insurance premiums to "double, triple or even quadruple."

Susan Collins "has yet to sponsor" any legislation to extend the tax credits despite impacted Mainers continuing to sound the alarm about the hardship they'll face due to the skyrocketing insurance rates they're now seeing as the CoverME ACA marketplace's open enrollment period begins.

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Portland Press Herald: Susan Collins refuses to protect our health care | Letter
By Briana Bononcini
November 4, 2025

• If it weren't for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) I would not have been able to open two restaurants and create more than a dozen jobs. If not for ACA health care coverage, when I had a pregnancy complication that resulted in a $40,000 hospital bill, we would've gone bankrupt and been forced to shut down our first business six months in.

• There are thousands of individuals and families just like mine in Maine - small business owners, artists, hospitality workers, carpenters, fishermen and more - who have once or continue to rely on the ACA and its enhanced premium tax credits to afford health care. It's critical Congress protect these expiring tax credits. People's health and lives are at risk.

• I am furious at Susan Collins for refusing to do anything to protect Mainers' health care. In 2020, Collins ran on the power and influence she'd have, and yet she has refused to leverage any of that power to stand up for us or take actual action to extend these expiring tax credits.

• Instead, Collins advanced the GOP tax bill that guts Medicaid and puts 61,000 Mainers on track to lose health care coverage, and she has voted against a bill that would extend the ACA's tax credits. Tens of thousands will see health care costs skyrocket and many will lose their coverage thanks to both Collins' actions and inaction.

See more: What Mainers are Saying About Rising Insurance Premiums: "I am Scared," "What Are We Going to Do," People "Are Going to Die"; What Mainers are Saying: Rising Insurance Premiums are "Catastrophic"; ICYMI: "Mainers to Collins: Prioritize Our Health, Renew ACA Tax Credits"; ICYMI: Impacted Mainers Discuss Skyrocketing Insurance Rates As Collins Refuses to Protect Mainers' Health Care; While Mainers Face Health Care Cliff, Collins Gets MAGA Swag Bag at Trump "Unity" Lunch What They're Saying: Maine Democrats, Advocates Criticize Collins, "Warn [of] Health Care Increases" [Maine Morning Star]; ICYMI: Maine Dems, Health Care Leaders Call Out Collins for Failing To Protect Mainers' Health Care; What Mainers are Watching and Reading: Thanks to Collins, Mainers "Could See Their Premiums Skyrocket"; Maine Beacon: Susan Collins accepts thousands from insurers while health costs soar for Mainers

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