Health Care Uncertainty in a Trump Presidency
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Version 0 of 1. As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take control of the White House and Republicans maintain their grip on the House and Senate, little clarity has come on how they will "repeal and replace" the Affordable Care Act. Meanwhile, Trump's likely less-stringent approach to antitrust may encourage more consolidation in the health insurance industry. The two announced deals in 2015 have Aetna (AET) planning to take over Humana (HUM) for $37 billion and Anthem (ANTM) paying out $55 billion for Cigna (CI) , but the Obama administration sued to block both. Editors' note: This article was originally published by The Deal, a sister publication of TheStreet that offers sophisticated insight and analysis on all types of deals, from inception to integration. Click here for a free trial. Editor's pick: This story was originally published on Dec. 22, 2016. For now, however, all eyes are on the GOP's plans for Obamacare, or the lack thereof, which leaves the health care industry facing an uncertain future. "Repeal and delay seems to be the topic du jour," Mizuho Securities analyst Sheryl Skolnick said by phone, referring to the oft-floated idea of House Speaker Paul Ryan's "A Better Way" plan to repeal Obamacare when the Republicans take office. Once Obamacare is repealed, the plan gives lawmakers extra time to determine what the legislature can do to actually replace the law, which mandates that all Americans must have health care. According to Sanford Bernstein analyst Lance Wilkes, in a repeal-and-replace scenario, a new plan wouldn't take effect until 2019 or 2020. But that may cause insurers to walk away from more state health care exchanges set up in the wake of the law, |