Our state regulators, lawmakers and congressional representatives need to do everything in their power to defend Maine consumers from “among the highest health insurance rate increases in the Northeast next year” — and a concerted push from members of the public can’t hurt that effort.

According to annual filings [PDF] with the Maine Bureau of Insurance, those of us whose coverage is accessed through Maine’s individual and small group marketplace could be exposed to rate increases of between 8% and 32% in 2026. If the requests of health insurers are approved, individuals will pay 26% more for their premiums, on average, and the small group market will weather an average increase of 19%.

Letters sent to consumers in recent weeks warn of the potential hikes. Writing for the Maine Monitor, reporter Rose Lundy expressed her personal shock at the revelatory lines, “buried halfway down the page” on what she called “an innocuous-looking letter.” We can all agree there’s nothing innocuous about an insurance premium that increases by 20% overnight.

The insurance carriers’ request for 2025 was also in the double digits — if not by as much. The bureau reportedly approved an increase of about 9%, lower than what insurance companies requested by about 5%.

Lundy’s letter regarding 2026 said that the “adjustments reflect broader trends in healthcare spending, including rising medical service costs and general inflation.” Stunned, she called up Bob Carey, superintendent of the Maine Bureau of Insurance, who said that in 25 years in the insurance business he could not recall another time when health insurance carriers requested increases of this magnitude.

“It’s a lose-your-sleep moment because I can only push so far,” Carey said. “When the claims come in, they need premiums to pay the claims.”

The proposed increases could be exceptionally challenging because federal enhanced premium health tax credits — Affordable Care Act credits which since 2021 have taken the sting out of increased monthly premiums for people on the poverty line — are set to expire at the year’s end.

According to the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation, the expiration of the enhanced tax credits “will result in an over 75% increase in enrollee premium payments” on average.

The expiration of the credits has a domino effect on premiums. Consumers themselves will pay more “out of pocket” because the federal government will pay less. Because the cost is higher, consumers who cannot afford coverage will drop that coverage, increasing the average gross premiums.

So on top of increases caused by other “key drivers” such as the rising cost of care and select prescription drugs (the uptake of expensive weight-loss medications like Ozempic has been singled out by some insurers), Medicaid eligibility and enrollment restrictions, lamentably weak competition and contract disputes between insurers and providers, the expiring tax credits will themselves drive up costs. Without congressional action preventing the credits’ expiry, the Congressional Budget Office expects “gross benchmark premiums” to increase by 4.3% next year and 7.7% in 2027 as a direct result.

“People are going to be shocked when they see how much more the prices of health coverage is without those enhanced premium tax credits, and not just poor people,” Carey told the Monitor.

While this hard reality is not unique to Maine — where the credits have saved roughly 50,000 consumers $90 million each year — it is evident that a number of wider-reaching factors are making the situation here more dire than it is elsewhere.

For now, the “eye-popping” increases demand that congressional action on enhanced tax credits be pursued as a minimum protective measure. Individual and small group enrollees should contact their representatives, attend the upcoming public forum on the rate increases and generally make their voices heard. Not as if these alarming numbers don’t speak for themselves.

The Maine Bureau of Insurance will hold a public forum online on Friday, August 15, at 9 a.m. to discuss proposed rate increases for calendar year 2026 sought by health insurers offering coverage in the merged (individual and small group) market. Attendees must register for the forum in advance using this form. Comments and questions from members of the public may be submitted by email to [email protected]. Rates are expected to be finalized in late August.