Private Health Insurance Stocks 'In Free Fall' as Medicare for All Gains Momentum

With comprehensive Medicare for All legislation now introduced in both chambers of Congress and bolstered by surging grassroots support, health insurance stocks are “crumbling” as investors grow increasingly fearful that single-payer could eventually become a reality.

“Together, the shares of hospitals and insurers lost $28 billion in market value on Tuesday,” Bloomberg reported. “The slide in hospital and insurance stocks continued Wednesday, wiping out billions of dollars more in market value from some of the biggest health companies in the U.S.”

As Bloomberg‘s Sahil Kapur put it on Twitter, “Health insurance stocks are in free fall as Democrats introduce ‘Medicare for All’ legislation in Congress and Bernie Sanders pushes it on Fox News.”

University of California, Berkeley professor and economist Robert Reich argued that tumbling insurance stocks are a “[s]ign that Medicare for All is real.”

“Current free-fall in health insurance stocks (Anthem, UnitedHealth, Centene, Humana, etc.) marks beginning of end of for-profit health insurance’s business model of seeking healthy people and avoiding sick people,” Reich tweeted.

National Nurses United, which is organizing and building support for Medicare for All nationwide, echoed Reich, saying the fall of insurance stocks is evidence that grassroots activism is having an impact.