A bill that would have allowed Mennonites to self-insure their vehicles so that they could comply with a religious prohibition on commercial insurance narrowly failed in the Maine House on Thursday, after one Democrat changed her vote at the last minute after initially voting in favor.
“Mennonites are a group of people that believe very strongly that they are to take care of themselves and provide for their own. One of the tenets of their faith is that they do not participate in insurance,” said the bill’s sponsor Rep. Steven Foster (R-Dexter) testifying on the House floor on Thursday.
“There are places in our laws for people with deeply held religious beliefs, and Mr. Speaker, this is one of them. These people, the Mennonites, have deeply held religious beliefs. They are not trying to skirt our laws, they are not trying to dodge insurance. This bill will allow them to self insure, and these are some of the most honest and reliable people on the planet,” said House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham (R-Winter Harbor) on the House floor.
Rep. Kristi Mathieson (D-Kittery) testified in the House against the bill, citing concerns that the self-insurance allowed under the bill would not sufficiently protect people injured in accidents with Mennonites using non-traditional insurance.
“A person sustaining personal injury or property damages in an accident with someone covered by this type of exemption would have significantly fewer protections as compared to the same accident with a person covered with traditional insurance,” said Rep Mathieson.
Following a divided report out of the committee on Health Coverage, Insurance and Financial Services, with the majority, including the bill’s only Democrat co-sponsor Rep. Sally Cluchey (D-Bowdoinham), voting “ought not to pass,” the bill narrowly failed in the House with a vote split largely along party lines.
One Republican, Rep. Jennifer Poirier (R-Skowhegan), voted with the Democratic majority against the bill in support of a motion to accept the majority’s “ought not to pass” recommendation, while three Democrats, Reps. Gary Friedmann (D-Bar Harbor), Dylan Pugh (D-Portland), and David Sinclair (D-Bath), voted against their party in favor of the bill. Ultimately, the “ought not to pass” recommendation succeeded with an extremely close 72-70 roll call.
Notably, one Democrat, Rep. Holly Sargent (D-York), initially appeared as if she would vote with the majority of Republicans before changing her vote to fall into her party’s line. If she had not changed her vote, the motion would have tied with a 71-71 vote.
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows has been working to kill the bill, submitting testimony against it during its public hearing and citing numerous alleged administrative concerns for the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, along with potential dangers to those with traditional insurance.
“The Bureau is deeply concerned about the lack of protections afforded both the folks who would use this exemption and other people who may be involved in motor vehicle crashes with them. The limits of insurance outlined in this bill are far below the statutory limits required of the general public and seem grossly inadequate to meet the potential damages from multiple accidents,” said Bellows.
“In summary, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles has no regulatory or policy framework to administer this proposal. It has neither the resources nor the ability to evaluate financial fitness and administrative competence in the insurance arena – as this responsibility is outside of the Bureau’s expertise and is not consistent with its mission,” she added.
During his speech on the House floor, Foster countered many of the administrative concerns raised by Bellows, pointing to the far smaller administrative and fiscal burdens posed by similar bills in other states than those warned against by Bellows in her testimony and the fiscal note she attached to the bill. In that fiscal note, Bellows claimed that the bill would require her office to hire six new employees and would cost the state over $1.8 million in just the 2025-2026 fiscal year.
The bill, LD 918, drew support from nine co-sponsors and would allow a qualifying religious organization, with tenets of sharing financial burdens among members, to deposit $250,000 to self-insure 5-10 vehicles, with that cost going up by $2,500 for each subsequent vehicle.
Foster has submitted similar bills in prior legislative sessions and the request of Mennonite constituents, but they have not yet proved successful.
