A horror for healthcare has unfolded in the stock market today, marked by a sea of red, particularly for the health insurance companies doing business in Medicare Advantage plans. This plunge is in addition to the substantial losses experienced yesterday, April 1, 2024.
For instance, the last time
$UNH (
@UHC ) saw its value plummet by more than 7.5% in a single day was during the height of Covid, on March 18, 2020.
I'm somewhat surprised by the market reaction to the upcoming CMS rulings, since I had assumed most of this should have already been incorporated into the stock price a long time ago.
As I discussed in my Substack research article yesterday (link in my bio), the upcoming CMS changes won't affect all health insurance players in the same way. Some will prosper, others will fail as a result of these changes. In fact, we already know who will thrive and who will die. The healthcare cartel knew about these changes through their entrenched lobbying efforts and welcomed them. Why? Because while it appears that every health insurer is affected, the most significant effect will be on newcomers and
#insurtech companies such as
@CloverHealth, clearing the way for the healthcare oligopoly to solidify its grip on power.
What's even more disturbing, as I outlined in my article, is the looming situation for Medicare Part D in 2025, as a consequence of the Inflation Reduction Act. I don’t think many healthcare experts realize that this law is set to unleash a level of carnage healthcare never witnessed before, and once the dust settles, only the payers with the most powerful PBMs (i.e., the so-called Big-3 PBMs) will emerge stronger and further consolidate their already ridiculously immense power.
These major policy and regulatory changes, which were meant to help the healthcare consumer, have instead empowered incumbents who bend laws and manipulate healthcare prices to become stronger than ever.
This situation seemingly presents a clear case for intervention by @linakhanFTC and the
@FTC, and/or the
@TheJusticeDept's
@JusticeATR. However, I strongly doubt they will take any action, which is profoundly disturbing, as the American taxpayers have entrusted them to do precisely that.