Trump announcing end to cost-sharing payments slams insurers, hospitals

The Trump administration’s announcement that it will stop paying cost-sharing reduction payments to health insurers, a major part of the Affordable Care Act, sent shares of health insurers and hospitals plummeting Friday.

As his is style, the president made the announcement in a tweet:

Health insurers that still have a presence on the ACA exchanges were the hardest hit in Friday morning trade. Those insurers are expected “to have immediate losses, some of potentially large magnitude, and a rapid exit of plans from marketplaces,” said Mizuho analyst Sheryl Skolnick.

In addition, “hospitals should see rising bad debt in 2018 as these co-pays/deductibles go unfunded, in our view… we would expect rising numbers of no pay heads in hospital beds,” she said.

Centene Corp.

CNC, -6.05%

 shares, which has turned a significant ACA profit and planned to expand its presence, dropped 8.8% on Friday. Molina Healthcare Inc.

MOH, -4.45%

 , which has also reported ACA profits, had a 3.8% stock decline. Stock in Anthem Inc.

ANTM, -3.18%

 , one of the few large health insurers that hasn’t exited the exchanges, dropped 2.5%.

Read: What Trump could do to make Obamacare ‘implode’

Other health insurer shares were also down in Friday trade, even those who have exited ACA exchanges or, like WellCare Health Plans Inc.

WCG, -0.34%

 , which never participated and yet had a 2.5% stock decline. UnitedHealth Group Inc.

UNH, -1.03%

 stock dropped 1.5%, Aetna Inc.

AET, -1.10%

 stock dropped 1.7%, Anthem Inc.

ANTM, -3.18%

 stock dropped 1.6% and Humana Inc.

HUM, -1.13%

 shares declined 0.7%.

Shares of hospital companies, which benefited from the ACA’s expansion of health insurance coverage, declined sharply on Friday. Tenet Healthcare Corp.

THC, -3.90%

 stock dropped 6.3%, Community Health Systems Inc.

CYH, -7.88%

 shares dropped 8.4%, HCA Healthcare Inc.

HCA, -0.31%

 stock declined 1.2%, Universal Health Services Inc.

UHS, -0.66%

 shares declined 1.7%, Quorum Health Corp.

QHC, -7.05%

 shares dropped 6.2% and LifePoint Health Inc.

LPNT, -0.18%

 shares declined 0.6%.

See more: CBO: Trump threat to scrap cost-sharing payments would increase federal deficits, premiums

President Donald Trump also signed an executive order expected to undermine the ACA and benefit companies offering short-term health policies on Thursday. Those companies include Health Insurance Innovations Inc.

HIIQ, +2.21%

 , which had a 2.2% share rise on Friday, and UnitedHealth Group.

Trump has previously threatened to end CSR payments, which are made to health insurers to pay for the increased cost of certain ACA plans and amount to billions of dollars. Although the announcement has a tone of finality this time, there are reports that the president could continue the payments if a bipartisan deal is reached.

In August, a report from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office found that ending CSR payments would increase federal deficits and gross premiums for certain ACA plans, and would translate to no ACA plans available to about 5% of people next year.

Health Care Select Sector SPDR

XLV, -0.33%

 shares declined 0.5% in Friday trade. Shares have risen 3.4% over the last three months, compared with a 4.5% rise in the S&P 500

SPX, +0.17%

 .