The stocks of publicly-traded hospital chains had bounced back and forth depending on how the fortunes of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney's election campaigns fared. But after President Obama's ultimate victory on Nov. 6,hospital stocks enjoyed a significant bounce, Nashville Public Radio reported.
Stocks of the various hospital companies were up as much as 9 percent on the morning after Obama's victory, which all but guaranteed that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act would remain intact.
HCA Holdings experienced a 9.5 percent bump and Tenet Healthcare rose 9.6 percent. Health Management Associates and Community Health Systems enjoyed gains of 7 percent and 6 percent, respectively, according to MarketWatch. That was despite significant selloffs on both the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ the morning after the election returns came in. Those stocks have mostly held onto the gains in the trading days that followed.
Chip Kahn, president of the Federation of American Hospitals, a lobby for investor-owned facilities, told Nashville Public Radio that while his constituents mostly lean Republican, the Democrats' policies may actually be more beneficial to them.
By contrast, companies that engage in Medicare Advantage and Medicaid books of business encountered more mixed consumer sentiment.
"While outperformance is unlikely for the sector as a whole, we see mixed or even positive election implications for companies with minimal-to-modest exposure to commercial and Medicare Advantage reform downside risks and positive exposure to Medicaid expansion," Goldman Sachs analyst Matthew Borsch told MarketWatch.
For more:
- read the Marketwatch article
- read the Nashville Public Radio article