Mary Link loves her job as a self-employed business owner, helping to run a home improvement company with her husband, Jeremy.

But the Links, like other small business owners across the state, are facing a large increase in their Affordable Care Act health insurance premiums if certain tax credits expire at the end of the year. Without them, the Windham couple’s monthly health insurance bill, for the same plan, would more than double next year.

Mary Link, 51, said she would be faced with going uninsured or stepping away from their business, Custom Link Home Improvement, and returning to a previous career in bookkeeping.

“There’s a lot of freedom, working for yourself. I’ve enjoyed this contracting work so much. It’s what I want to do and it’s what makes me happy now. Should I think about going back to a corporate job just for the medical insurance?” Link said. “I shouldn’t have to determine my career based on health insurance.”

The subsidies — called Enhanced Premium Tax Credits — are set to expire Dec. 31 and were at the center of the federal government shutdown dispute. The shutdown ended without the credits being extended and it’s uncertain whether Congress will vote to do so over the next few weeks. Democrats have advocated to extend the credits and President Donald Trump, after initially speaking out against an extension, seemed on the verge of proposing a two-year extension of the credits, according to recent national news reports.

The proposal’s official unveiling was postponed and possibly scuttled after criticism from congressional Republicans.

All of Maine’s congressional delegation, including Republican Sen. Susan Collins, independent Sen. Angus King, and Democratic Reps. Chellie Pingree and Jared Golden support extending subsidies.

Another ACA subsidy — called Advanced Premium Tax Credits — was part of the original law that went into effect in 2013 and has no expiration date, but enrollees become ineligible for the credits when their income surpasses 400% of the federal poverty level, or $84,600 for a two-person household.

The enhanced tax credits that are set to expire were approved by Congress in 2021 as part of a coronavirus relief package and extended the following year to 2025. They benefit all marketplace enrollees, but the benefits scale up for those who earn more because the credits cap premium payments to 8.5% of household income.

Mary Link said she and her husband make about $90,000 per year and will lose their tax credits if they’re not extended. Without the subsidy, their monthly health insurance bill would jump from $954 this year to $2,147 next year, if they kept the same plan.

“This is disgusting,” she said. “It sucks.”

FACING HEFTY INCREASES

Corey Husak, director of tax policy for the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning national think tank, said about 4.4 million small business owners or self-employed workers across the country would be impacted if the credits expire.

Because most small business owners skew toward the higher end of the income scale for ACA enrollees and benefit more from the enhanced tax credits, they will face an average increase of about $1,500 annually, Husak said.

“These credits help prevent ‘job lock,’ which allows people to strike out on their own, become entrepreneurs and not be stuck in a job because of health insurance reasons,” Husak said. “We don’t want to have health insurance stand in the way of dynamism in the U.S. economy.”

Federal data shows that people who are self-employed or run small businesses have made up a sizable percentage of Maine’s ACA enrollees.

The U.S. Treasury Department estimates that 15,640 of Maine’s 2022 enrollees — about 26% of all enrollees in the state that year — were small business owners or self-employed. The 2022 data was the latest available federal analysis.

In 2025, the total number of ACA enrollees in Maine was 64,678.

Susan Gallo, 60, of Cumberland, and executive director of Maine Lakes — a nonprofit advocacy group that works to protect Maine’s lakes and ponds — said her monthly ACA premiums would jump from $600 to $1,600 if the enhanced tax credits expire.

Gallo said she doesn’t know what she would do to absorb the hefty increases.

“It makes me question, ‘Should I stop working?'” Gallo said. “Do I go to my (nonprofit) board and say ‘I can’t make this work?’ I don’t want to do fundraising to pay for my insurance. I want to fundraise for our programs.”

‘WE’VE CRAFTED THE AMERICAN DREAM’

Penny Collins, 46, of New Gloucester, said she joined her husband’s independent engineering firm in 2021, giving up a career in human resources and the health benefits that came with it, to expand the family’s business.

“We would have been very reluctant to make this leap without the ACA marketplace,” Collins said.

Now, their family of four is facing insurance premiums increasing from about $15,000 per year to $33,000 for an equivalent plan.

The Collins family earns more than 400% of the federal poverty level — which is $128,600 for a family of four — and their health care premiums have increased over the past four years as their income has gone up. Collins said she felt like those were fair increases, but if the premiums more than double next year, it would hamper their firm.

Collins said they might have to stop funding their retirement account.

“I shouldn’t have to feel like we need to give up paying into our retirement account so we can take the kids to the doctor,” Collins said. “We are loving having our own business. We’ve crafted the American dream, and I don’t want us to have to give it up.”

CONFUSION OVER PREMIUMS

Many people are anticipating huge premium increases and are already canceling plans.

While small business owners would experience some of the largest increases, most ACA enrollees will see a spike in premiums if the credits expire. In Maine, the average health care premium increase would be 77%, according to Maine’s Health Insurance Marketplace.

The Urban Institute estimates 8,000 Maine residents would go uninsured rather than pay the higher premiums next year.

Hilary Schneider, director of Maine’s Health Insurance Marketplace, said 2,000 people have already canceled their plans for 2026. She said many are confused, believing that all of their tax credits are expiring, when the advanced tax credits will still help many afford insurance.

For some, especially those in lower income brackets, the increases will not be as steep. Schneider said she’s worried some may go uninsured, not realizing that their increases may be far less than they expect.

That happened to Corey Perreault, of Brunswick, whose family runs a small construction business. She said she thought her family was going to see their three-person household’s monthly premiums go from $250 to $3,200.

After looking more closely at the letter she received from Maine’s health insurance marketplace, most of her family’s tax credits were the advanced tax credits, which are not expiring. Instead, the family’s premiums would go from $250 to $460 per month, which Perreault said is still a big increase, but one they can absorb.

“It’s incredibly confusing,” Perreault said. “I had no idea there were two different types of tax credits. And I’m someone who has paid a lot of attention to our health insurance.”

Open enrollment on Maine’s marketplace goes through Dec. 15 for plans that would start on Jan. 1, or Jan. 15 for plans that start Feb. 1. For more information, go to www.coverme.gov.