Protesters rally yesterday outside the Cumberland County courthouse in Portland.
More than 200 people gathered in Portland last evening to protest Anthem's latest 23 percent premium increase proposal for individual health policies.
Holly Handren, a 24-year-old college student from Caribou, came to the rally organized by the activist group "Change that Works" with seven friends. "And we drove down for five hours and we're headed back tonight just so we could say that we were here and we got our voices heard."
The proposed increase would affect about 18,000 Maine policyholders and their dependents. It comes on the heels of an 18 percent increase Anthem asked for the year before. State regulators knocked that down to eleven percent, but Anthem has appealed that decision in court.
A hearing on the appeal scheduled for today in Superior Court in Portland has been postponed until next Wednesday.