Just The Possibility Of ‘Medicare For All’ Is Spooking Investors Into One Of Worst Market Routs In More Than Twenty Years

Bloomberg: These Health Companies At Risk From ‘Medicare For All’ Debate
As presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) grabs headlines with his plan for “Medicare for All” and targets doing away with private health insurance, equity analysts have been working overtime to tell investors what companies have the most to lose. Health insurers and now hospitals have led the sector-wide plunge even as policy analyst like Veda’s Spencer Perlman argue that Medicare for All has a slim shot at becoming law. With the plan moving 10 percent of GDP to public control from private hands, “it is unprecedented in scale and scope – nothing of this magnitude has ever been attempted, let alone succeeded,” Perlman argues. (Flanagan, 4/18)

Bloomberg: Pfizer, Merck Stocks Fall On Health-Care Rout
The drubbing in the health-care sector spread to pharmaceutical companies this week, with investors bloodied by a rout that left stocks trading near their lows of the year. About $150 billion of market value was erased from companies in the S&P 500 Health Care Index in the four days through Thursday, when markets closed for the holiday weekend. The 4.4 percent decline left the gauge trading around lowest level since Jan. 3. (Darie, 4/18)

In other news —

Modern Healthcare: Private Equity Infuses Healthcare With $63B Investment
Global private equity-backed healthcare deals rose almost 50% to $63.1 billion 2018, the highest level since 2006, according to a new report. The provider sector continued to be the most active, with global transaction value surging to $35 billion across 159 deals, compared with $18.9 billion across 139 deals in 2017, Bain & Co.'s 2019 private equity and corporate M&A report found. (Kacik, 4/18)