Rob Bresnahan’s State of the Union guest criticized health care cuts he supported

US House Rep. Rob Bresnahan has come under fire for selling Medicaid-related stocks while supporting GOP cuts to health care.

After voting to cut Medicaid by nearly $1 trillion in President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” last summer, US House Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-Lurzene) found himself in an awkward situation prior to Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday. 

Bresnahan invited Lisa Phillips Chervanka, a registered nurse at Commonwealth Health, as his special guest for the State of the Union address. Then, in a local TV interview with the congressman standing by her side, Chervanka talked about how health care professionals are tasked with doing more with far fewer resources to help her patients.

“Health care right now is a very, very busy environment like it’s always been, but the difference now is we have less people to do it with and less financial resources to do what we need to do to take care of patients,” Chervanka said.

More than 30,000 of Bresnahan’s constituents are expected to lose their health care thanks to Trump’s budget cuts and congressional Republicans refusing to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits that expired at the end of last year. 

These cuts are going to hit the northeastern Pennsylvania congressional district pretty hard because more than 200,000 residents, or a quarter of his constituents, rely on Medicaid for some form of coverage. 

Since taking office, Bresnahan has become one of the top stock traders in Congress, making over 600 financial trades in 2025 even though he campaigned against Congressional stock trading.

Last year, NBC News reported that Bresnahan sold up to $130,000 in Medicaid-related stocks, and the New York Times reported that he sold between $100,000 to $250,000 in bonds from the Allegheny County Hospital Development Authority for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) as Republicans were voting on Trump’s Medicaid cuts. 

“Northeastern Pennsylvanians are worse off today because of Congressman Rob Bresnahan’s self-serving decisions in Washington,” Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti said in a statement. “Health care costs have skyrocketed under his failed leadership, all while he plays the stock market and makes a quick buck off our pain.” 

Cognetti, who is the top Democrat looking to challenge Bresnahan in the midterm election, recently received the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s (DCCC) endorsement for its competitive Red to Blue program, making it one of the top targeted races for Democrats in the country. 

She added, [Bresnahan’s] record on health care is especially devastating: He has unleashed a health care crisis on NEPA by gutting Medicaid, slashing funding for Pennsylvania hospitals, and jacking up health care premiums. We are tired of politicians lying to us and leaving us behind – our community deserves so much better.”