Mainers For Working Families advocates for good health care, fair taxes, and policies that will grow opportunities to help families thrive. Because when working families do well, Maine does well.
FIGHTING FOR MAINE FAMILIES
Mainers are working longer days and more hours because wages and incomes are not keeping up with the cost of living, health care, or education. Meanwhile, greedy corporations are making huge profits and paying lower taxes.
Over 100,000 Mainers are uninsured.
100,000
78% of workers in Maine live paycheck to paycheck.
514,000
20% of Mainers say they can’t afford their prescribed medication
222,000
!["[My husband] had no choice but to stay home. We almost lost everything."](https://images-vod.wixmp.com/554a2178-5501-417b-8b47-29cca4641644/images/67b7a67561ad4c83ad2dd2014d143841~mv2/v1/fill/w_408,h_230/file.png)
Paid Family & Medical Leave
A robust Paid Family and Medical Leave program in Maine would guarantee at least 12 weeks of leave for Mainers to get better if they get seriously sick, to care for an ill family member, to welcome a new child, and to take care of our military family needs.
To learn more about paid family leave, click here.
Health Care For All Mainers
Access to affordable, quality healthcare is dwindling. There are multiple initiatives that Maine can explore to solve the problem:
– Raising over $35.5 million every year to reduce health insurance costs for Mainers by continuing the federal Health Insurance Assessment – a fee which expired in 2021 that insurance companies paid to cover expanding coverage under the Affordable Care Act – at the state level
– Creating a state Office of Health Care Affordability, which will study the rising costs of healthcare in Maine, and find ways to lower the costs for all of us
To learn more about each of these policies, click here.
Fair Taxes
Working families are paying their fair share in taxes, but big corporations and the wealthiest few are not. Here’s how we can make the tax code fair for everyone:
– Ending the LePage Tax Cuts for the wealthy
– Closing Corporate Tax Loopholes
– Providing Property Tax Relief for working Mainers and small businesses
To learn more about fair revenue solutions, click here.
Curb Prescription Drug Costs
We need to take on the greed of Big Pharma, and ensure that every Mainer can afford their prescribed medications. We can achieve this by:
– Capping prices on life-saving drugs
– Prevent price gouging of drugs
- Increase oversight and transparency over drug companies and their pricing of medication
To learn more curbing prescription drug costs, click here.
There are smart policy solutions that will ensure that all Mainers have what they need to thrive. Mainer’s For Working Families are working with everyday Mainers in our rural communities – whose perspectives are often underrepresented – to give them more voice in Augusta.
Our goal as an organization is to educate the public about the work the legislature is doing on the key issues that affect our working families and to reach the Mainers who have often been left behind in the political process. We want to give them the tools to advocate for the things they need most – a strong, affordable healthcare system, a fair and equitable tax code, and policies like paid family & medical leave.
Our community organizing and engagement team is putting in the work to connect with our veterans, small business owners, and people of faith to discuss the challenges they're facing and empower them to take action. Click here to meet our team.