Affordability Crisis

Maine is facing a healthcare affordability crisis

Affordable care is out of reach for many Mainers. After years of rising healthcare costs, Mainers can no longer afford annual price increases that consistently outstrip inflation. In 2024, total premiums for a family plan in Maine totaled over $25,000—that’s akin to buying a brand new Honda Civic for every family in the state every year.

And it’s only getting worse.

In 2026, premium increases for small businesses in Maine are expected to average 17.5 percent. That’s money that could be used to increase worker wages or hire more employees, but instead is being siphoned away to pay for health insurance that costs more and more, while often offering less generous coverage.

• Despite paying sky high premiums, Mainers face average family deductibles of over $4,800 per year, the 4th highest average deductibles in the country.

• Maine also has the eleventh highest prevalence of high-deductible health plans in the country, with 61 percent of Mainers enrolled in HDHPs.

• On average, Mainers are expected to spend $2,347 per person on health-related expenditures in 2025—that’s 10 percent of average household income in our state.

It’s not surprising that Mainers can no longer afford to get the care they need, or that they end up going into debt to get necessary care. A 2025 Consumers for Affordable Health Care survey of Maine workers shows the significant impact of high healthcare costs on their households. According to those results:

• Nearly 40 percent of Mainers skipped or delayed going to the doctor when they were sick due to costs. And one in three Mainers cut pills in half, skipped doses of a mediation, or delayed or did not fill a prescription due to cost.

• Two out of three families have experienced financial impacts as a result of medical bills. More than 30 percent struggle to pay for basic necessities, like food, housing, or heat. Three in ten Mainers have used all or most of their savings, and three in ten report being contacted by a collection agency.

• 45 percent of Maine households have taken on medical debt within the past two years, with two out of three of those households covered by insurance when they took on that debt. Hospital-owned facilities are, by far, the most common source of medical debt, with 80 percent of households with medical debt saying that a hospital-based service contributed to that debt.