Donald Trump’s win has created ripples across financial markets, including in the health care sector. Some big Nashville companies saw their stock prices plummet as soon as the markets opened after the election.
Shares of HCA and Lifepoint, two big hospital corporations based here, dropped by about 15 percent Tuesday night. Community Health Systems, which is already facing financial troubles, fell by a quarter. All three companies rose slightly by the close of the day Tuesday.
“A lot of that is driven by just the fear and uncertainty over what happens with the Affordable Care Act, which has been a big benefit to hospitals over the past several years,” says Frank Morgan, a Nashville-based analyst with RBC Capital Markets.
The Affordable Care Act increased the number of insured people in the country, meaning hospitals owned by companies like HCA are seeing more patients who can pay for health care.
So when a Republican president gets elected who pledges to repeal Obamacare, this sector gets jittery.
“The big uncertainty is, what is the is replacement, and what does that mean for the current 22 million people who have insurance?” Morgan says. “Certainly there are a few talking points that Donald Trump has thrown out there, but none of them that you can latch onto very specifically. They’re all generalizations.”
But not all of the health care industry reacted poorly to the election news. Several big insurance companies, which have struggled under Obamacare, were up slightly.
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