Anthony,
Don't know about HUM, but I disagree about the sector bottoming right now. May be some ups and downs along the way, but as long as they keep beating themselves up by underbidding each other routinely to win contracts, and gradually losing more money as an industry each year, I don't see how the bottom could be near, at least for the industry. The vicious cycle looks to me to have spun out of control and be on a downward spiral, albeit years away from generally collapsing. I believe last year was actually the first year that the industry as a whole lost money, vs. simply a bunch of companies. You can only reduce care for patients and reimbursement for drs. so much, while at the same time increasing patients' rates, and expect to do what you're in business for along with being profitable in the long haul. Having to fight to get approval of meds routinely is way out of hand, such as fighting for nonaddictive drugs over cheaper addictive ones, or FDA-approved ones over non-approved ones, can only truly go on so long. I see more and more drs. dropping plans every day at this point.
Time they change the name to what it truly is...managed money, not managed care. I'd reserve the sector only for trading frankly, not for long-term purposes....just my opinion, of course. Good luck either way.
Marshall |
