Maine’s Affordable Care Act enrollment for 2026 is down and thousands have dropped their plans, with many saying they couldn’t afford the higher monthly premiums.
Enrollment had dropped 7% as of Dec. 15, compared to the same time last year, and about 5,500 enrollees have canceled their plans for next year, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement on Friday. The drop comes after Congress failed to extend certain tax credits that expire at the end of the year.
The 2026 premiums spiked for most people signing up for ACA insurance — by an average of 77% in Maine, according to the state — when the credits were allowed to expire. Called Enhanced Premium Tax Credits, they were first approved in 2021 and extended to the end of 2025. They helped reduce premium costs for enrollees.
Mitchell Stein, a Maine-based independent health policy analyst, said in an interview Friday that the fall-off of enrollees was “completely expected” because premiums for some are becoming unaffordable.
“We should be alarmed because people are going to go without coverage,” Stein said. “People who are dropping coverage are gambling that they won’t have a catastrophic health event. They’re saying, ‘I hope I won’t have a heart attack this year.’”
The deadline for purchasing a plan that begins on Jan. 1 was Dec. 15. While plans that begin on Feb. 1 have a Jan. 15 deadline, the bulk of ACA signups are completed in December to avoid lapses in health insurance coverage.
The state on Friday wasn’t able to provide the number of enrollees who had signed up by the Dec. 15 deadline, but said 57,881 had selected a 2026 plan by Dec. 13. Total ACA enrollment for 2025 was 64,678.
Lindsay Hammes, a spokesperson for the Maine DHHS, said in the statement on Friday that the most common reason that people gave for canceling their 2026 plan was that they couldn’t afford their monthly premium.
Rates for some are going up by thousands per month, especially those earning more than 400% of the federal poverty level, or $85,600 for a two-person household. The enhanced credits were the only premium assistance available for those earning more than 400% of the poverty level.
Hammes said 34% of those who canceled their plans for 2026 have household incomes higher than 400% of the poverty level.
Stein said the credits expiring is causing an unhealthy cycle for the marketplace. Those most likely to cancel coverage, he said, are the young and healthy, leaving older people and those with health conditions remaining in the insurance pool, driving rates up.
Congress is still fighting over whether to extend the enhanced credits, with most Republicans and President Donald Trump opposed to them.
A group of moderate House Republicans signed onto a bill that would force a vote in January on a three-year extension of the enhanced credits. Meanwhile, a group of moderate Republican senators, including Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, is working with some Democrats on a possible bipartisan compromise that would extend most of the credits, but create new eligibility rules.
Collins and Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, voted to extend the credits last week, but the bill failed to garner the 60 votes needed to pass in the Senate. Collins also voted in favor of a Republican plan that didn’t extend the credits, but funded up to $1,500 for health savings accounts, which can’t be used to pay for premiums. King voted no on that plan.
Maine Reps. Chellie Pingree, D-1st District, and Jared Golden, D-2nd District, also support extending the credits.
Another set of tax credits — called Advanced Premium Tax Credits — were part of the initial ACA law that went into effect in 2013 and don’t have an expiration date.
Hammes also said the number of new enrollees in Maine — those signing up for ACA insurance for the first time — is down 29% compared to 2024.
“We have the lowest number of new consumers at this time of year since Maine launched its state-based marketplace (in 2021),” Hammes said in the statement. “CoverME.gov expects more Maine people could opt to cancel their plans once bills for January begin to hit. Those have just started going out to consumers from carriers and payment is due by Jan. 1.”
This story was originally published by the Maine Trust for Local News. Joe Lawlor can be reached at jlawlor@pressherald.com.