Augusta, ME – This week, voters across Maine slammed Susan Collins for failing to protect their health care. Mainers called out Collins for her vote to greenlight Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, saying that “she could have stopped this,” and that “Susan Collins has failed us all.”

Read more coverage of how Mainers are calling out Collins for her health care record here:

WMTW: Coverage of Retire Susan Recess Protest in Lewiston

Transcript:

REPORTER: “Democrats protesting outside Senator Susan Collins’ Lewiston office yesterday morning as part of the party’s ‘Retire Susan’ recess tour. Their focus was Collins’ votes on the ‘One Big Beautiful Act.’

REPORTER: Collins is one of three Republicans who voted against final passage of the bill, but she did support an earlier procedural vote which moved it closer to the finish line. It’s been estimated that more than 30,000 Mainers lost health insurance due to that legislation.

LEWISTON RESIDENT JIM LYSEN: “I think she needs to move on. I think she only takes votes when sometimes it’s convenient — she gets permission to vote against Trump. But most of the time she’s been lockstep in with Trump.”

WGME: Maine Democrats say Collins failed to protect Mainers’ healthcare

August 6, 2026

• Maine Democrats are highlighting what they say is a failure by U.S. Sen. Susan Collins to protect Mainers’ healthcare.

• Democrats gathered in Lewiston on Thursday for the first stop of what they’re calling their “Retire Susan Recess” tour, coinciding with the Senate’s summer recess.

• They claim Collins cast a key vote allowing President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” to move forward. Democrats say the legislation cut Medicaid and Affordable Care Act tax credits, causing health care costs to increase for tens of thousands of Mainers.

• “This bill took funding away from health care and nutrition for everyday people to pay for massive tax giveaways to billionaires and corporate donors. Susan Collins had the seniority and the power to stop this. She could have stopped this. Instead, she locked arms with Donald Trump and her billionaire donors to harm Maine people so that they could all get richer,” Democratic state Rep. Drew Gattine said.

• Democrats say their U.S. Senate candidate, Troy Jackson, has a stronger and proven record of protecting health care. […]

• Collins did support a procedural vote last year that allowed the president’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” to advance to the Senate floor […]

NewsCenter Maine: Maine Democrats criticize Sen. Collins’ voting record on health care

August 6, 2026

• Outside of Republican Sen. Susan Collins’ field office in Lewiston on Thursday, Maine Democrats criticized her voting recasord on health care, specifically on Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. […]

• Maine Democrats said the Trump budget act is projected to cost Maine $3 billion in Medicaid funding over the next decade, citing the independent health news service KFF, which relied on Congressional Budget Office figures. […]

• State Sen. Henry Ingwersen, who chairs the legislature’s Health & Human Services Committee, said 9,100 Mainers have already lost Medicaid or federal Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) coverage this year, according to government enrollment data compiled by the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy.

• Maine Democrats also blamed Collins for voting during last year’s federal government shutdown against an extension of enhanced subsidies for Affordable Care Act premiums, which expired.

• This year, 8,550 Mainers dropped coverage this year because they couldn’t afford it, according to the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.
  

• “These are business owners, these are employers, they work, they pay taxes, they contribute to the community, and we’re telling them that they can no longer have health care,” Ingwersen said.
  

• Gattine said, “We need to send Susan Collins home and send Troy Jackson to Washington to fight for our health care.”

Press Herald: Sen. Collins sends mixed message on healthcare | Letter

By Margo Donnis, South Portland resident

August 6, 2026

• These Medicaid cuts have caused many Maine local hospitals to fail and many Mainers to lose health insurance. Cancer patient care is affected.

• Then I see another ad that claims that Sen. Collins ultimately voted against cuts to Medicaid. But Collins voted to advance the bill to the Senate. A “no” vote from Collins could have returned the bill to the House. Medicaid could have remained intact.

• To top it off, I read that Collins’ supporters are proud of her seniority. However, Collins’ seniority was ineffective when it came to ensuring that Medicaid would remain intact.

• I hope the woman in the political ad remains healthy. I pray that all my fellow Mainers remain healthy. Under Susan Collins’ watch, many Mainers now need to travel long distances to receive healthcare and many will be bankrupted by medical bills. Susan Collins has failed us all.

Maine Beacon: Maine physicians press Collins over abortion, health care votes ahead of Senate recess

• Maine physicians are urging Sen. Susan Collins to answer for her record on abortion rights and health care as Congress prepares to leave Washington for its month-long August recess.

• “Their skyrocketing cost has made it harder and harder for our patients to access the medications I know they would benefit from,” Nesin said. “I’ve had patients cut pills in half. I’ve had patients skip doses to make a prescription last another week. I’ve had patients tell me that they’re choosing between filling a prescription and paying for groceries or for heating their home.”

• Former state Rep. Dr. Patty Hymanson, a neurologist from York, called out Collins for recently saying she would again vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, whose vote helped overturn Roe v. Wade.

• “Kavanaugh was a deciding vote to overturn Roe, and Collins was the deciding vote for Kavanaugh,” Hymanson said. “As a physician, as a Mainer, as a woman, I find Senator Collins’ lack of remorse deeply troubling.”

• Hymanson also warned that national Republicans continue pursuing new abortion restrictions, pointing to efforts to limit access to abortion medication and last year’s federal cuts to Planned Parenthood funding.

• Dr. Patrick Connolly, a family physician in Portland, said Collins also bears responsibility for rising health insurance costs after repeatedly voting against extending enhanced Affordable Care Act premium tax credits.

• “Hope is not a method when it comes to health care coverage,” Connolly said, describing patients who dropped their insurance after monthly premiums increased dramatically. He also pointed to reports showing Collins missed more than half of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearings this Congress, including hearings on abortion and reproductive health after the Supreme Court overturned Roe.

Fox 22: Three Maine physicians raise concerns over Senator Collins’ health care voting record

• Some physicians in Maine are raising concerns about Senator Susan Collins’ record on health care. […]

• …three Maine physicians are calling on the Senator to respond to her 2018 vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court, which they say made way for Roe v. Wade being overturned, and her 2022 ‘no’ vote on the Inflation Reduction Act.

• “It speaks volumes for seniors across our state,” said Dr. Noah Nesin, a family physician in Glenburn who’s also the former chair of Maine’s Prescription Drug Affordability Board. “Many of whom rely on multiple prescriptions while on fixed incomes.”