No one in Northeastern Pennsylvania, or anywhere in Pennsylvania, should have to lose health coverage because Congress failed to make health care affordable or protect the programs families depend on.

At the beginning of 2026 Open Enrollment, 28,893 people in Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District were enrolled in health coverage through Pennie. By March 24, 7,508 had already terminated their coverage — 26% of the district’s starting enrollment.

Since then, the health care affordability crisis has only deepened. The enhanced federal premium tax credits expired at the end of 2025, and Pennie enrollees saw their costs double on average in 2026. Increased costs are the leading reason people are canceling coverage.

Families across Bresnahan’s district have experienced significant premium increases. According to Pennie data, average monthly premium costs per enrollee increased by $122 in Lackawanna County, $116 in Luzerne County, $284 in Monroe County, $201 in Pike County, and $81 in Wayne County.

And the pain does not stop there. H.R. 1 — the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — enacted sweeping Medicaid changes that threaten coverage and health care providers across Pennsylvania. In Bresnahan’s district, the Commonwealth estimates that 21,637 people in PA-08 could lose Medicaid coverage as the law’s Medicaid changes, including work requirements and more frequent eligibility checks, take effect.

Before Congress took up voting twice for H.R. 1, Rep. Rob Bresnahan told Northeastern Pennsylvanians, “If a bill is put in front of me that guts the benefits my neighbors rely on, I will not vote for it.” He also said that in Northeastern Pennsylvania, “people keep their word.”

Then Rep.Bresnahan voted YES on H.R.1 twice, first for the May 2025 House bill and again for the final legislation that became law and enacted sweeping Medicaid cuts and changes.

Local hospitals also face potential financial effects. In addition to the projected coverage losses, changes to Medicaid funding could place further pressure on hospital finances. Geisinger Community Medical Center, Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center, Lehigh Valley Hospital Hazleton, and Moses Taylor Hospital were among 47 Pennsylvania hospitals identified as having moderate to significant risk factors for closure due to Medicaid cuts. PHAN estimates that the federal health care changes could increase uncompensated care for PA-08 hospitals by approximately $46 million each year. Want to learn more? Read the Pennsylvania Policy Center’s report, From Progress to Peril, on how federal health care changes threaten coverage, affordability, and Pennsylvania’s health care system.

However, Congress can still act. Lawmakers can restore enhanced premium tax credits that helped families afford Pennie coverage, reverse harmful Medicaid cuts before more Pennsylvanians lose coverage, and protect the hospitals and health care providers that communities rely on.

Tell Rep. Bresnahan to work with House leadership and Republican and Democratic colleagues to:

• Help reverse harmful Medicaid provisions he voted to enact before thousands of PA-08 residents lose coverage and local hospitals face even greater financial pressure.

• Restore the enhanced premium tax credits and continue working toward an affordability solution that can become law.

• Protect PA-08 residents from additional federal health care changes that increase coverage losses or shift costs onto Pennsylvania families, hospitals, and the Commonwealth.

Bresnahan told Northeastern Pennsylvanians that the benefits they rely on were promises that should be kept. As the Medicaid changes he voted for move toward implementation, PA-08 residents can hold him to that commitment and ask him to protect their health coverage.