In response to CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz today joining vulnerable Congressman Rob Bresnahan for a “health care roundtable” in Northeastern Pennsylvania, DCCC Spokesperson Eli Cousin issued the following statement:
“Rob Bresnahan is a corrupt multi-millionaire day-trader who voted for the largest cuts to Medicaid in history, and Dr. Oz is a snake-oil salesman who is overseeing Bresnahan’s devastating cuts. Together they represent two of the most comically out-of-touch cartoon villains who have ever stepped foot in Northeastern Pennsylvania. NEPA deserves better than crooks and quacks who strip health care down to parts and cash in on the backs of hardworking people’s suffering.”
BACKGROUND:
- Bresnahan promised he would protect health care, but then voted for the largest cuts to Medicaid in history. Bresnahan wrote that he would not support a budget bill that “includes any reduction in Medicaid coverage for vulnerable populations.” He broke that promise by voting to cut Medicaid to the tune of roughly $1 trillion.
- Bresnahan voted to put rural hospitals at risk of closure. Bresnahan’s vote makes an estimated “$137 billion in cuts to rural health systems over 10 years,” which could force hospitals and health clinics across Pennsylvania to shutter. His so-called “Rural Health Fund” makes up a fraction of these devastating cuts.
- Bresnahan dumped Medicaid provider stocks and Pennsylvania hospital bonds just days before his vote. Despite campaigning on a promise to ban congressional stock trading, Bresnahan offloaded up to $130,000 worth of stock in Centene, UnitedHealth, CVS Health, and Elevance Health – four companies which oversee roughly half of all Medicaid enrollees in the country. Bresnahan also “sold off between $100,001 and $250,000 worth of bonds issued by the Allegheny County Hospital Development Authority for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center … after a report identified 10 rural hospitals in Pennsylvania that faced immediate risk of closure.”
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