Major insurance companies drop on sector woes
Although UnitedHealth Group reported a positive fourth quarter—including a 62% increase for its Ingenix database system business—the company’s stocks have since plummeted, partially because of an ongoing investigation by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. On March 12, shares fell to a 52-week low, bottoming out near $36 after seeing prices as high as $60 in December 2007. ...
... Shares of Humana Inc. also plummeted this week after the company decreased its earnings forecast for 2008. The company’s shares fell close to $40, a far drop from the $87 price tag the insurers’ stocks saw in mid-January.
“Humana this year miscalculated how many elderly with serious medical conditions would choose its Medicare drug plan, among the cheapest available,” executives told Bloomberg March 12. “The mistake added $160 million to the company's Medicare drug costs in the first two months of this year.”
WellPoint, the first domino to fall, lowered its forecast on March 10, triggering what Bloomberg called “the worst decline in managed-care stocks in a decade.”
WellPoint’s stock prices tumbled to $46 March 11 and have held since. The company ended 2007 near $90.
Won't be long before they are begging for a government takeover.
- DCblogger's blog
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i wish more big companies would join a single-payer push--
they're hurting from it too, and don't want to give benefits anyway so it's win-win for them, no?
interesting Humana info
So they didn't realize how many seniors whould sign up that actually required prescription drugs. From what I have gathered, the plans can discontinue any drug at any time from their offerings, however the senior will only be allowed to switch plans at certain times. Want to guess if they continue to lose $160 every two months?
class warfare
Companies would be far better off if they could drop this burden, but the rich & powerful just don't want to do this.
36% of our income to food, energy, and medical care in 07--
ABC-- http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory...
"... By the end of 2007, 36 percent of consumers' disposable income went to food, energy and medical care, a bigger chunk of income than at any time since records were first kept in 1960, according to Merrill Lynch. ..."
Please, Mr. Cuomo --
No. Hookers.