Former Vice President Joe Biden rallied on Super Tuesday, taking nine of the 14 Democratic presidential primaries in play and surpassing Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in delegates to date. And the health insurance industry was seemingly pleased to see it.
Health stocks and insurers are predicted to outperform the broader market Wednesday, Bloomberg reports, because Wall Street was reassured by Biden's resurgence. The vice president wants to build upon former President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act, as opposed to Sanders' preferred Medicare-for-all, which is a threat to the private insurance industry.
Companies with ties to government-run health care like UnitedHealth Group Inc, Centene Corp, and EHealth Inc. jumped 10 percent, 8.2 percent, and 2.6 percent, respectively.
Jared Holz, a health care strategist at Jefferies, told Bloomberg that Biden's Super Tuesday performance "will spur positive returns across the health care insurance peer group," but he added that the Democratic presidential race has already proved that it shift gears rapidly, which makes long-term prospects harder to forecast. Read more at Bloomberg.