Health insurance stocks plummet on Obamacare fears

By Philip Klein, Philip Klein

Published December 20, 2015

Health insurance stocks plummeted on Thursday after the nation's largest insurer slashed its profit forecast due to massive losses from Obamacare.

UnitedHealth Group, which warned that its earnings would take a $425 million hit, primarily due to worse than expected results from participating in the Obamacare insurance exchanges, saw its stock price fall $4.75, or more than 4 percent, to $112.46 in mid-morning trading.

Shares of Anthem, which has a larger footprint in the exchanges, saw its shares fall even further — down $9.41, or nearly 7 percent, to $127.89.

Among other major insurers, Aetna was down nearly 5 percent, Cigna was down over 4 percent, and Humana was down about 3 percent.