[TheMercenary]

I posted about this a while back and now we are seeing some fallout as plans move forward. One thing discusssed during the run up to the election was how the Obama plan was going to provide care for not only the un-insured but the under insured. And if the government provided plans available to all that was cheaper than what companies provided there would be no incentive for companies to offer care and they would shuffle the people over to the government plan and save millions. Who wins? Big business hands down. Walmart already does this and does not offer health plans for the average worker. Who loses? Patients and health plans that offer insurance better than what you get with the current government plans. Providers will also lose. The government can barely manage medicaid and medicare. The formation or additon of millions of people onto another governent health plan will do little to provide access to care. Medicare and Medicaid patients are limited as to who they can see for care. This may be the straw that breaks the camel's back. Time will tell.

Obama Health Care Plan Squeezes ETFs
Health care companies consider President Barack Obama's budget a potential profit-killer. Investors agreed and dumped their shares last week, dragging down exchange traded funds.

The budget aims to raise taxes and deduction limits for people who earn more than $250,000 a year. The ultimate goal is to raise $634 billion to help fix the health care system. The tax hikes will generate $318 billion of that amount, and the rest will be squeezed from Medicare, the government-sponsored health program for seniors.
The actual cost to create a universal health system is projected to be significantly higher than the budget estimates. To close the gap, the government might cut reimbursements paid to health-care providers, eroding profitability.

The Medicare Advantage plans offered by private insurers could lose as much as $175 billion. The Advantage program is on the chopping block because it pays 14% more to providers than Medicare would for the same services.

The health-care and biotechnology ETFs we track lost 7.4% during the five trading days that ended Feb. 26

Obama promises that workers who like their company plans will be able to keep them. But if the government offers better benefits with lower premiums, private health groups might be forced to compete. If people move en masse to government plans, private insurers would suffer. each lost at least a third of their values.

The nightmare scenario for health insurers, a "Medicare for All" system like the one Representative Dennis Kucinich envisioned in his 2005 bill, could put many of these companies out of business. On the other hand, the U.S. automobile industry and other sectors consider the end of company-sponsored health care the route to international competitiveness.