This is not going to be a long rant. You've undoubtedly read plenty of them. No, this time all you get is one cite and a simple table.
What with the extreme restrictions and regulations that the PPACA has imposed on health insurance companies over the last year, you might be wondering how they have done for themselves. You might be wondering whether their stockholders are gnashing their teeth and cursing Obamacare. Wonder no more.
According to the LA Times:
Healthcare stocks, last year's weakest domestic industry sector, charged to the top of the charts in the second quarter and first half of this year.
But just how well did they do?
Here are the top five health insurance companies in the US (by market share) that are publicly traded, and how those stocks has done over the last year:
Company |
Symbol |
Year ago |
Today |
Increase |
UnitedHeath Group |
UNH |
$30 |
$52 |
73% |
Aetna Group |
AET |
$28 |
$44 |
57% |
Wellpoint Inc. Group |
WLP |
$51 |
$78 |
53% |
Humana Group |
HUM |
$46 |
$81 |
76% |
Coventry Corp. Group |
CVH |
$19 |
$38 |
100% |
Average Gain: 72%
To put this another way, your average tycoon, having invested $1,000,000 a year ago in each of these stocks, for a total of $5,000,000, would now be sitting on $8,600,000. Or just enough for said average tycoon to live on after political donations.
Remember the giant sucking sound of yore? Perot had it wrong. It's really the sound of your money being vaccuumed up by health insurance companies and redistributed to their CEOs and stockholders.