canceled their health insurance plans

At the start of this year, Rachel Phipps, a 64-year-old retired social worker, decided to forego her health insurance. 

After Congress failed to extend pandemic-era tax credits, her household’s monthly premium increased from $200 per month to more than $2,800. The Kennebunk resident, who currently works part time, said this would have eaten up almost half of her and her husband’s annual income. 

“We literally have no insurance. We’re terrified of a major accident, or even just a diagnosis,” Phipps said. She already has a respiratory infection and precancerous skin cells she has to manage with topical chemotherapy. “If I need treatment, it’ll all have to come out of pocket,” she added.

Phipps is one of the many Mainers who are seeing their health care costs skyrocket following the expiration of the enhanced premium tax credits, which had helped subsidize the cost of marketplace health insurance for millions of Americans, including approximately 60,000 in the Pine Tree State. 

Now, thousands are going uninsured, and a lot more are choosing plans that only cover the bare minimum, based on preliminary enrollment data from the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.

In 2026 during open enrollment season — when people purchase marketplace health insurance plans — 8,550 consumers cancelled their coverage, according to the agency. Of these consumers, 32%, or more than 2,700 consumers, cancelled their plans because they felt that they could no longer afford the monthly premium.

“That 32% likely has not found other options,” said Hilary Schneider, director of the Office of the Health Insurance Marketplace.“If they have health care needs, they’re showing up in our medical system without coverage, and if they’re not able to pay for that care, that ends up being bad debt and charity care.”

Overall enrollment in the health insurance marketplace has dropped in Maine and beyond. 

U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data show that nationally 1.2 million fewer people signed up for marketplace health plans in 2026 compared to the same time last year, marking the first year since 2020 that enrollments have declined. 

This year also marked the lowest overall participation in marketplace plans since Maine launched CoverMe.gov in 2021. According to Maine DHHS data, 58,523 consumers enrolled in health insurance this year, of which 8,577 were new and 49,946 were returning consumers. This marked a 10% drop in total enrollment compared to the previous year..

After the enhanced premium tax credits were instituted in March 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the proportion of marketplace enrollment among eligible individuals increased by 27.5%, according to a recent report by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Schneider explained that those who are now opting to keep marketplace health insurance are choosing high-deductible plans that cover a limited range of services because they offer lower monthly premiums. 

In Maine, the most commonly selected plan in 2026 was an Anthem bronze plan with an $8,000 individual deductible and a $16,000 family deductible, leaving customers responsible for higher out-of-pocket expenses. DHHS recorded a 13% increase in enrollment in bronze plans, which now represents nearly 60% of all marketplace customers. 

“If those people need a lab test, hospital care or surgery, and they can’t afford the $8,000 deductible, those people are what we call underinsured,” Schneider said.

“If you can’t afford care, you not only avoid unnecessary care, but you avoid necessary care,” she added, “so what happens is people get diagnosed with diseases at a later stage and the delay in care ultimately costs the health care system more in the long run, and can cost us in terms of lives, too.”

Julie Moringello, a cancer survivor and mother who lives in Deer Isle, is one of the consumers taking their chances with a high deductible plan.

Moringello, who is a self-employed artist, said her income is low enough that the expiration of the enhanced tax credits don’t impact her. And while her premiums did not increase in 2026, her high deductible plan leaves her responsible for about $8,000 out of pocket every year. 

“In terms of affordability, I cannot save for retirement. I cannot save my daughter’s college education. I cannot afford a new car,” she said. “But it’s a strain. It is a real strain on our household.”

Some of Moringello’s family members, like her stepdaughter who lives in Southern Maine, have made the decision to go uninsured, she said. Moringello said she worries that will create more strain on the state’s health care system. 

“I really, really worry about people that have dropped their insurance, and what that is going to do to rural health care in Maine, which is already in not a good situation,” she said. “Health care providers and hospitals in particular, how are they going to stay afloat when people can’t pay and they’re sick?”