US health insurers tumbled after the country’s highest-valued healthcare provider warned that an increase in non-urgent surgeries was pushing up costs.
UnitedHealth — one of the biggest US-listed companies with a market capitalisation of more than $400bn — and rival insurers benefited during the pandemic as older patients delayed some procedures, but the warning from the industry bellwether suggested that trend is reversing.
Seniors are now “more comfortable accessing services for things that they might have pushed off a bit, like knees and hips,” Tim Noel, who leads UnitedHealth’s Medicare and retirement business, told a Goldman Sachs conference on Tuesday.
UnitedHealth shares dropped more than 7 per cent. Humana shed more than 12 per cent, CVS Health dropped 6 per cent and Cigna fell 4 per cent.
Conversely, shares of medical device makers jumped, with Noel’s comments signalling higher demand for medical technology. Stryker and Boston Scientific were up more than 4 per cent.
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