Augusta, ME – This week in an Op-Ed in the Portland Press Herald, Susan Collins was called out for failing to save Maine’s rural hospitals. Collins was a “key” “pivotal vote” to advance Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, which included billions of dollars in Medicaid cuts that is leading to hospital unit closures across Maine, most recently the birthing unit at Lincoln Hospital’s Miles Campus in Damariscotta.
Read more here:
Portland Press Herald: Birthing center closure a slap in the face to elected leaders
August 13, 2026
By Douglas Rooks
For a time, Americans could buy subsidized insurance, with low-income families covered by Medicaid. Then came the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year, with drastic subsidy cuts — 5 million have dropped their coverage — and punishing reductions in Medicaid.
Sen. Susan Collins touts the rural hospital fund in the same bill without mentioning Maine will lose at least three times as much through cuts as it could gain, and even that depends on Trump administration approvals. The first $30 million grant for rural Maine hospitals is for — you guessed it — greater “efficiency.” […]
It wasn’t always like this. Sen. Olympia Snowe, Collins’ former Republican colleague, worked hard to allow rural hospitals to remain independent, but now the pace of centralization, and demands of insurers and drug companies that also receive billions in public funds, have created a system few can navigate and even fewer understand.
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