– 345,000 Mainers currently get health coverage through Medicaid and 172,000 Mainers receive food assistance from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — this includes 1 in 4 small business owners 

– Cuts to SNAP will dramatically increase food insecurity in our communities. Even now, for several of the individuals and families we work with, SNAP benefits don’t meet their needs, and they have to supplement with food from food pantries just to have enough to eat.  

– SNAP supports local businesses. 1,466 Maine retailers, including grocery stores and farmers’ markets, rely on SNAP transactions as part of their revenue.  

– 7,000 Veterans in Maine receive SNAP benefits to help feed themselves and their families  

– The proposed increased work requirements would be especially detrimental to Maine, which has the oldest population in the nation.  

– 166,000 Mainers are providing unpaid care to a loved one, usually an older adult in their lives, making it difficult to maintain steady employment.  

– The new work requirements would include adults aged 55-64, which makes up the largest age population in Maine.  

– 42% of Mainers live in rural communities, making access to transportation, employment, and grocery stores more difficult.  

Meeting stringent work requirements would be impossible for many of these people, and a great strain for others.   

– Almost all Maine Medicaid enrollees ages 19-64 are already working. Adding work requirements will only create administrative barriers, causing eligible individuals and families to lose coverage from missed paperwork deadlines or long delays from overworked agency staff 

– According to local pediatricians, Medicaid is the backbone of health coverage for roughly 140,000 Maine children, 54% of all children in our state. Cuts to Medicaid will directly harm children and families. 

– Medicaid cuts will leave thousands of Mainers without access to preventative healthcare, resulting in more crowded emergency rooms and longer wait times for all 

– Half of Maine’s 24 rural hospitals are already at risk of closing, according to the Center for Quality and Patient Reform; cuts to Medicaid would put these health centers at further risk  

The immediate effects of cuts to SNAP and Medicaid will be that Mainers will need to choose which basic items to pay for: food, medications, healthcare, or heating or cooling for their homes. As more of our neighbors struggle to meet these needs, inevitably, these cuts will lead to more homelessness, which is already at a crisis level in our state.  

Maine must come together now, united in protecting basic needs for each other. Please be sure to have you and your network (friends, family, colleagues, hobby group, congregation) call on our senators today!