Veterans urge Collins: Protect health care, not billionaires’ bank accounts!

May 28, 2025

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Veterans, advocates call on Collins: Protect Mainers’ access to health care and nutrition – not billionaires’ bank accounts!

WHAT: Stand-up presser to encourage Sen. Susan Collins to use her vote and her power on the Appropriations committee to stand up for veterans and other Mainers’ health care and food assistance, and stand against huge tax breaks for billionaires and rich corporations.

WHEN: Weds, May 28, 11am

WHERE: Street in front of Sen. Collins’ Bangor office, 202 Harlow St., Bangor, ME 04401

WHO: Speakers include:

• Adam Toothaker (he/him), president, Veterans for Peace Maine
• Garrett Martin (he/him), President and CEO, Maine Center for Economic Policy
• Camden Ador (they/them), MTS, veteran, Bangor
• Megan Smith (she/her), Bangor-area community organizer, Maine People’s Alliance

WHY:

Last week, the House voted to pass historic tax breaks for billionaires and rich corporations, and to pay for it by slashing critical programs, especially Medicaid. This bill will soon go to the Senate – and it’s vital that Sen. Collins use her power and influence in that chamber to fight against it.  

The huge reconciliation bill will eliminate health care coverage and food assistance for millions of Americans, and cut more than a trillion dollars from health coverage and food aid. The Senate is likely to take up the bill after the Memorial Day recess.

At the same time, the Department of Veterans Affairs is in crisis thanks to canceled contracts, hiring freezes, resignations, layoffs and other moves by the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge). Nearly 55,000 Mainers are enrolled in the VA health care system.

More information on the ways the federal reconciliation bill will hurt Mainers (also, DHHS impact statement):

• Up to 34,000 Mainers could lose Medicaid coverage, and 31,000 could lose Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
• Most of the people who will lose their coverage won’t lose it because they aren’t eligible. They’ll lose it by getting buried under mountains of red tape and relentless bureaucratic requirements. It also ends help for low-income seniors on Medicare, blocks access to gender-affirming care, and cuts access to basic health care services including cancer screenings offered by Planned Parenthood and other reproductive health providers.
• It will create an almost $190 million hole in our state budget: $90 million penalty for covering immigrant children, pregnant and postpartum people; $97 million to cover the cost of SNAP

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With more than 32,000 members, MPA is the largest community organization in Maine, and one of the largest in the country. We work together on issues that include but are not limited to housing, care, climate change and environmental justice, health care access, racial justice, and immigrant rights.

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Contact: Nora Flaherty-Stanford, [email protected], (207) 370-8314