AUGUSTA, Maine — New data from the US Census Bureau confirm that Maine continues to lag behind the rest of the country in its economic recovery.
The percentage of Mainers in poverty remains unchanged between 2010 and 2016, while poverty rates continued to fall in the US and in most states.
Between 2013 and 2016, the share nationally of non-elderly American adults without health insurance, fell from 20% to 12%, thanks largely to the Affordable Care Act. In Maine the reduction was half as large, just four percentage points (16% to 12%).
“While the economy in the rest of the country continues to recover, poor state level policy decisions are leaving Mainers behind,” said MECEP executive director Garrett Martin. “We cannot add jobs and grow Maine’s economy by rejecting available federal resources that will improve access to health care, help workers get the skills they need to re-enter the workforce or obtain a better paying job, or strengthen infrastructure that we all rely on to get to work and connect globally.”
Note: Today’s data release by the Census Bureau included national income, poverty, and health insurance data for 2016. More detailed state-level data was made available on Thursday, September 14.
