MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • October 26, 2025
When the Affordable Care Act passed, I was just starting out as a farm apprentice. I was wavering on whether I could continue farming. Affordable health insurance allowed me as a 25-year-old to continue managing Maine farms and learning more about how to run an operation for myself. Five years later, it allowed my partner and I to start our own farm business. But now, with the shutdown in Washington, the future of the enhanced premium tax credits is uncertain. Feeding our community from land that we care for is nearly our whole life. But make no mistake, our farm family needs what all working families need: secure access to affordable health care — and the enhanced premium tax credits are what make that possible. We’ve weathered floods, frost and pandemics. But the threat of losing our health insurance is the one thing we can’t afford. ~ Bethany Allen, Harvest Tide Organics, Bowdoinham