Health insurer stocks are suffering today after the Senate's reform bill gets a boost from a Congressional Budget Office report saying the bill would cut the budget deficit by $81B over 10 years. Wellpoint (WLP) -7.1%, UnitedHealth (UNH) -4.7%, Aetna (AET) -5%, Humana (HUM) -5.4%, Cigna (CI) -4%. (CBO letter to Baucus, .pdf)
The CBO has now officially lost all credibility. Note that the CBO did not look at any real legislation, they just looked at what people wanted in the legislation. With "people" being the Administration. Its all smoke and mirrors. But time will tell if the American people will be totally fooled again.
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