Health insurers slide after Trump targets them in social media posts
Major health insurers are down in premarket trading on Monday after President Trump took aim at them over the weekend in a series of antagonizing social media posts, as lawmakers make progress on a deal to end the government shutdown.
Affordable Care Act tax credits, which subsidize plans provided by private insurers, have been a major point of contention among lawmakers as they inch toward a deal to reopen the government. Over the weekend, Trump suggested in a Truth Social post that “THE MONEY MUST NOW GO DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE, TAKING THE ‘FAT CAT’ INSURANCE COMPANIES OUT OF THE CORRUPT SYSTEM OF HEALTHCARE.”
The Senate voted on Sunday to advance a proposal to end the shutdown (now the longest in history), a proposal that reportedly does not include an extension of the ACA tax credits. The market-implied probability of ACA tax credit extensions making it to the first funding bill fell from over 60% on Sunday to 4% on Monday morning, according to data from Polymarket.
The biggest providers of ACA marketplace plans like UnitedHealthcare, Elevance Health, Oscar Health, and Molina Healthcare fell by Monday morning.