Shares of hospital stocks were mixed while health insurers were down Friday, as investors tried to make sense of President Trump's decision to end cost-sharing subsidies to assist poor exchange enrollees pay for their coverage.
Shares of two hospital companies struggling to earn a profit were hit hard. Tenet Healthcare Corp. shares were down 72 cents, or 5%, to $13.14, while Community Health Systems shares fell 25 cents, or 4%, to $5.76. The broader stock market indexes were up slightly.
Other publicly traded hospital companies fared better. Shares of HCA, the nation's largest investor-owned hospital chain, were up 36 cents, or 0.5%, to $74.58 as of the close Friday.
LifePoint Health's shares advanced 30 cents, or 0.6%, to $55.
Shares of Universal Health Services fell 41 cents, or 0.4%, to $105.51.
The termination of the subsidies will likely result in a rise in bad debt at hospitals as more patient co-pays and deductibles go unpaid, said Mizuho Securities healthcare analyst Sheryl Skolnick, in a note to investors Friday. "This is assuming that exchange members can even buy an exchange plan in their areas," Skolnick said.
Among the insurers, Anthem, which has been reducing its exchange business, saw its share price drop $6.02, or 3%, to $183.72.
United Healthcare's shares were down 40 cents, or a fraction, to $192.52; the company has pulled out of the exchanges.
