Health Care Ruling Sends Insurance Stocks Down, Hospital Shares Up

VOA News

June 28, 2012

Equities analysts at Goldman Sachs, the major investment bank, say hospitals are "winners" in the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on President Obama's health care plan.

A commentary published by the firm predicts that the year 2014, when many provisions of the health care law are in place, should be a good one for hospital companies. Goldman says hospital stock prices will probably rise.

Equity analysts at other companies say the new law will make health insurance more widespread and that will cut the financial burden on hospitals from treating indigent patients.

Goldman says the overall impact on healthcare companies will be "modest."

However, stocks of health care insurance companies declined shortly after Thursday's ruling. While insurance companies will be getting many new customers, investors may expect that on balance, new regulations could hurt insurance industry profits.

Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.