Health Reform: Good Deal or Bad Deal for Insurance Companies?
Good deal, says Wall Street. Here’s The Associated Press, reporting yesterday on insurance company stock prices after the Senate bill cleared its first
Jul 31, 2020200 Shares199.8K Views
Good deal, says Wall Street. Here’s The Associated Press, reporting yesterdayon insurance company stock prices after the Senate bill cleared its first procedural hurdle:
“„Shares of Aetna rose $1.81, or 5.6 percent, to $34.32; Cigna gained $2.15, or 6 percent, to $37.95; Humana added $1.71, or 3.9 percent, to $45.24; UnitedHealth traded up $1.35, or 4.3 percent, to $32.89; Wellpoint Inc. jumped $2.19, or 3.8 percent, to $60.51. All hit 52-week highs, except for Humana, which was a little more than a dime short of its 12-month high.
“„Wellcare also rose $1.47, or 4 percent, to $38.41; Health Net rose 73 cents, or 3.1 percent, to $24.28; Molina rose 61 cents, or 2.7 percent, to $23.02; and Amerigroup rose 49 cents to $26.28. Wellcare and Health Net hit 52-week highs as well.
Nate Silver parsedthese figures yesterday, reaching the verdict that they don’t necessarily mean that the industry’s profit marginswould be higher under the bill, though millions more customers would increase the companies’ volume considerably. OK — fine. But it still means the industry will fare well (with more than $430 billionin government subsidies thrown in for good measure). And it still means that the task of screening claims for medical services remains in the hands of the same folks who have a perverse economic incentive to deny those claims.
Hajra Shannon
Reviewer
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