Push to Get Taxpayer-Funded Health Care on the Ballot in Maine Gains Steam
A petition to put universal health care on the ballot in Maine in 2027 gained over 20,000 signatures last week during the state’s primary elections. If the initiative passes, it would make Maine the first state in America to establish a universal health-care system.
Read more FTC Sues Trans Medical Group for Misleading Guidance on Gender Transition for Minors
Supporters have until early 2027 to gather the rest of the 67,682 signatures required to place the initiative on the ballot. Amid primaries, they are getting Maine’s politicians involved.
On May 20, Graham Platner and Troy Jackson were the guest speakers at a town hall “Medicare for All” event in Portland, Maine, drawing attention once again to the fight for “health care justice.”
“I am lucky enough that in my four infantry tours that I was blown up enough times that the VA thinks I deserve health care,” Platner told listeners. “The hurdle to getting health care like I get shouldn’t be fighting in stupid foreign wars.”
The event was hosted by the National Nurses Organizing Committee and championed by health-care advocacy organizations like Maine AllCare and Health Care for All Maine.
“The system would cover services deemed ‘medically necessary,’ with that standard set by a supervising board,” Health Care for All Maine says. The members of this supervisory board would be chosen by the state governor and reviewed by the Joint Standing Committee on Health Coverage, Insurance, and Financial Services.
As a result, there is no clearly defined list of “medically necessary” services being proposed with the ballot initiative. It remains to be seen whether procedures like abortion and gender-reassignment surgery would be classified as vital reproductive health-care services if the initiative made it onto the ballot and became law.
This push for a statewide ballot initiative is not the first time Maine residents have tried to establish statewide universal health care. In 2021, “An Act to Support Universal Health Care” became law, but it immediately faced a roadblock: It has a contingent date. In other words, it is not effective until two fundamental conditions are met, according to Maine AllCare.
First, it requires a federal law to be passed permitting states to secure a waiver to establish a universal health-care plan and offering funding. Second, it demands a notice from the superintendent of insurance to the Maine legislature, secretary of state, and revisor of statutes of the contingency of a universal health-care plan.
In the meantime, two bills were brought into consideration by the Joint Standing Committee on Health Coverage, Insurance, and Financial Services last year. One bill pushed for a study of the feasibility of a universal health-care plan and the other for a blueprint of the plan. On May 21, 2015, the committee voted “Ought Not to Pass” on both bills, citing a lack of resources and interest.
Read more Universities Hiding Involvement in Climate Lawfare, Complaint Alleges
The current ballot initiative is the response to these down votes, issued to the Maine secretary of state’s office on October 24, 2025, under the title “Resolve, Directing the Development of Legislation Establishing a Publicly Funded System of Health Care Coverage for All Maine Residents.” Its official filing deadline is April 24, 2027.
If passed, the statewide ballot initiative would direct Maine’s legislature to develop a comprehensive plan for publicly funded health-care coverage and begin implementing it by 2028.
“Honestly there’s no bigger issue for Maine than health care — for people’s pocketbooks, for our economy, and for people’s sense of well-being,” said Garrett Martin, president and CEO of the Maine Center for Economic Policy, during a Democrat gubernatorial candidate health-care forum on April 10.
“Nearly half of Mainers have medical debt,” he added. “Health-care spending in Maine accounts for 25% of our economy.”
Other states have made similar attempts to institute universal health care.
Back in 2006, Massachusetts became the first state to come close to establishing a form of universal health care.
A bill signed into law by Governor Mitt Romney required all state residents over 18 to own health insurance covering at least a core set of services. Employers with over ten employees had to cover at least a portion of their employees’ insurance fees, and lower-income state residents received subsidies. Residents who did not receive insurance plans could purchase low-cost plans from private insurers recommended by an independent state agency, and very poor residents did not pay premiums at all, according to a 2008 report from the National Library of Medicine.
In 2011, Vermont’s government passed a law intended to be the first step toward a statewide single-payer health-care plan. The program proved more expensive than the bill’s authors predicted, so Governor Peter Shumlin repealed it in 2014 to avoid having to raise taxes dramatically to pay for it.
New York has also been pursuing a single-payer statewide health-care system for decades. First introduced in the 1990s, the New York Health Act has been consistently in and out of the New York State Assembly and is currently stalled.
Read more ‘Prattman,’ Murder by Tractor, and Painted Clowns: How AI Is Transforming the Political Campaign
