BANGOR, Maine (WABI) – In response to the proposed healthcare cuts under the Trump administration’s H.R. 1, also known as ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act,’ nurses are traveling nationwide to rally communities and urge lawmakers to act.
On Saturday, National Nurses United (NNU) made a stop at Bangor’s Cascade Park as they travel the country on its “Red Alert” bus tour, joined by the Maine State Nurses Association (MSNA).
“We’re really trying to draw people’s attention to the rural hospitals that may well be closing over the next year or two with the defunding of Medicare through the current administration,” explained Portia Judson, a nurse at MDI Hospital and member of MSNA.
According to NNU, four Maine hospitals are especially vulnerable to the proposed federal healthcare cuts because of their reliance on Medicare and Medicaid funding: Northern Light AR Gould Hospital in Presque Isle, MaineHealth Mid Coast Hospital in Brunswick, St. Mary’s Health System in Lewiston, and York Hospital.
“These hospitals serve more than a million patients a year,” said NNU President Jamie Brown during Saturday’s rally. “When the H.R. 1 cuts go into effect after the upcoming midterm elections, the communities that rely on these hospitals and the patients who receive care here will be impacted as they see critical funding dry up.”
With Maine having already lost healthcare centers and labor and delivery units in recent years, local nurses say longer wait times and longer drives will only worsen if the cuts pass.
“I’m a labor and delivery nurse, so I hear about it, these are my patients. They ask where they’re from and they tell me, you know, it’s from 2 hours away,” recounted Erin Oberson, a registered nurse at Eastern Maine Medical Center and co-president of MSNA.
For Judson, closures would hit rural and island communities especially hard: “Anyone with any kind of complications is kind of left out on a limb hoping maybe that LifeFlight can get there in an emergency if it’s not raining, snowing, dark or cloudy.”
Speakers from both unions urged lawmakers to take action and demanded that funds allocated in H.R. 1 for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement instead be redirected to Medicare for All.
They also voiced solidarity with nurses at Central Maine Medical Center who were allegedly suspended for trying to unionize and with Debora Kapisha, a Maine Medical Center nurse who was detained then released by ICE in August.
While pressuring lawmakers to vote in their favor, organizers emphasize that mobilizing community support is just as vital.
“People need to talk to each other. People need to work together and get their voices heard because after all, it’s supposed to be us who are in control of our government, not the other way around,” Judson said.
Throughout this tour, NNU are calling on community members to sign its Vision for a Healthy Society petition to support campaigns for Medicare for All, universal housing, and the abolition of ICE.
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