Senate Republicans abandon Medicare cost cuts, Bloomberg reports

Senate Republicans are proposing cuts to Medicaid for low-income and disabled people that are more aggressive than policies the House passed to help pay for President Trump’s tax package, Rachel Cohrs Zhang of Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the legislation. Senate Republicans, however, abandoned efforts to cut costs in Medicare, which is good news for Humana (HUM) and UnitedHealth (UNH), which are major players in the Medicare Advantage insurance market, according to Bloomberg. The Senate plan, to be be released on Monday, solidifies Republicans’ decision to cut funding for Medicaid health insurance for the poor to pay for tax cuts, Bloomberg adds. Publicly traded companies in the space health insurance space include CVS Health (CVS), Centene (CNC), Cigna (CI), Elevance Health (ELV), Humana (HUM), Molina Healthcare (MOH) and UnitedHealth (UNH).