During the first legislative session of the 132nd Maine State Legislature, my colleagues and I took action to improve consumer protections in Maine. Our goal was to lower everyday costs for Mainers, whether by making it easier to cancel subscriptions or harder for ticket vendors to price gouge concertgoers.

As the Senate chair of the Legislature’s Health Coverage, Insurance and Financial Services Committee, I either sponsored or worked on a number of bills, some which have been signed into law, that will protect consumers from bad actors and big corporations, and level the playing field for all of us.

Of these bills and laws, I am most proud of my bill to prohibit medical debt from being reported on consumer credit reports. The new law, which will take effect in September, will ensure that Mainers can buy a home or a car without medical debt hurting their credit score. With the recent decision of a judge to block a federal rule that allowed medical debt to be removed from consumer credit reports, this state protection has become even more important.

I am also proud of my bill to stop banks and credit card companies from issuing fees for paper statements, an issue that was brought to my attention by a constituent last fall When we spoke, I agreed that it was not fair to charge customers a fee just for doing their basic banking with paper statements — especially older Mainers and folks on modest fixed incomes. Not everyone has access to or is comfortable doing banking online.

Donna Bailey

Besides my bills, we worked hard to protect Mainers from unreasonable overdraft fees. Basically, some banks and credit unions charge a customer’s account more than one fee for insufficient funds associated with the same withdrawal transaction. They make these charges even if more than one withdrawal attempt was made for the same transaction. That does not seem fair to me, so we worked with the bill sponsor to require the Bureau of Financial Institutions to issue written guidance to state-chartered banks and credit unions regarding overdraft and insufficient funds fees.

Also in my committee, we passed a bill to address consumer fraud at virtual currency kiosks. If you’re not familiar, a virtual currency kiosk is an ATM-like machine often at a convenience store or gas station. It allows someone to insert cash in return for cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin. The machine converts your cash into a digital asset for your digital wallet. Unfortunately, there has been a rise in fraud and scams at the machines. Bad actors, posing as family members, IRS agents or tech support, coerce consumers into using these kiosks to send money. Once they do, the money is gone — usually forever. The new law establishes basic oversight and regulations to protect Mainers from losing their hard-earned money.

I was also very proud to co-sponsor a bill to prevent financial exploitation of Maine residents over the age of 65. While Maine already has some resources and tools to protect older Mainers from financial exploitation and scams, this new law strengthens them. It will help financial institutions and law enforcement take action to prevent financial exploitation before it happens. Every time I hear a story of a retiree who lives on Social Security or modest personal savings who lost everything, it breaks my heart.

The Health Coverage, Insurance and Financial Services Committee will continue working on several bills that we carried over to the next legislative session, including a bill to protect consumers from health insurance companies that use artificial intelligence to automatically deny health insurance claims. If you have ideas or thoughts for additional steps my colleagues and I can take to improve consumer protections in Maine, please contact my Senate office. I can submit new bills for the next session until Sept. 26.

Donna Bailey represents Senate District 31, Buxton, Old Orchard Beach and Saco. She can be reached at 207-287-1515 Donna.Bailey@legislature.maine.gov.