In the run-up to the tax bill vote in December, Sen. Susan Collins stated that it would be a mistake to vote for the tax bill without first stabilizing the health care marketplace. Then she voted in favor of the tax bill without first ensuring that the health care marketplace was stabilized.

When she failed to ensure that action, she stated that she had received a promise from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that he would support legislation soon after the tax bill vote to ensure government funding of cost-sharing reduction payments to insurers and reinsurance pools. Since that never happened, I have to wonder: Who lied, Sen. McConnell or Sen. Collins?

Since then, the Trump administration – with the implicit aid if not outright support of McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan and other Republican leaders – has enacted or outlined plans and policies that are designed to further destabilize the Affordable Care Act marketplace under the guise of promoting lower-cost plans that do not actually provide much insurance coverage.

I therefore call on Sen. Collins to state publicly what legislation she has worked on, title and bill number, and when it is scheduled to come to a vote, to address this issue, which affects not only Maine, but also the entire nation.

Jeffrey Kaplan

Biddeford