Winners and Losers Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare)

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    Travis Mullen

    Professor Cowan

    Faculty/Student Research

    The Winners and Losers: Obamacare

    The objective of the research being conducted and summarized is to analyze the impacts

    of the Affordable Care Act of 2008 (aka Obamacare). I will be focusing on the healthcare

    industry and firms associated with facilitating the well-being of Americans, with respect to

    profits and stock market prices.

    The goal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is to reform the American health care system and

    to provide access and quality healthcare to all Americans. The ACA contains multiple

    components with one reform being the way Americans buy health insurance. It requires that all

    Americans purchase a private health care plan or pay an additional tax. The bill focuses on

    preventive care services, protection from insurance companies denying coverage for pre-existing

    conditions, eliminates lifetime limits on benefits, and many other unprecedented reforms.

    The market segments I will be focusing on include insurance companies, drug distributors,

    hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, medical device companies, biotechnology companies and a

    few high risk investments that are loosely related to Obamacare.

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    I dont think any of the companies I am focusing on will be "losers" when it comes to

    Obamacare; the only major losers seem to be the patients. There are countless reasons why I

    think Obamacare will be worse for patients but that is not the objective of this report. When

    analyzing the companies at current market value they all seem to show potential for growth.

    Most of them looked poised for growth in the future and many have healthy dividends to add

    value. This is only true if the management of the companies I have highlighted are able to stay

    competitive and properly financed. I predict there will be no "losers", because by implementing

    Obamacare they are establishing and cementing themselves into the new system. With that

    being said though, I still believe there are may be multiple issues that could impact the

    companies in an adverse fashion, but the benefits should certainly outweigh the negatives. The

    reason I am so bullish on these stocks is largely focused on the fact healthcare is showing strong

    growth and the future of Obamacare will push to increase healthcare delivery across many

    industries and insure all Americans will be able to receive proper healthcare. These companies

    are what you could say are the best of breed as they have a strong hold on the current market

    with deep pipelines and strategic locations that will only add value in the future. The companys

    revenues and net income may show a temporary decline initially when Obamacare is first

    implemented but these negative impacts to me are potential buying opportunities.

    We must remember that we are talking about the United States of America; in my eyes

    the best country in the world. Unless the country goes bankrupt, the healthcare business and the

    companies that are highlighted, if related to the health and well-being of its citizens, should

    remain as an important industry to our citizens. Many Americans have had ability to access and

    benefit from good medical care and will not want to cut back on their healthcare needs. The

    hope is that with Obamacare, every American will be able to receive proper medical attention.

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    There are currently 30 million Americans who do not have health insurance, which under

    Obamacare will be required to purchase insurance or be penalized.

    I started with the concept of being cemented or anchored into the system because

    currently and in the new Obamacare concept, the health care system revolves around the

    insurance companies and their control over the payment process. Health insurance should

    revolve around the relationship between the insurer and the insured. This is often not the case

    due to rules and regulations that benefit employers who end up buying the majority of patient

    health insurance. The relationship lies between the insurer and the health care provider because

    the insurer dictates how much money will be paid to the provider and for what services.

    Under the Affordable Care Act up to 30 million additional people who were previously

    uninsured will face penalties if they do not acquire health insurance. This in turn gives more

    power to the insurance companies. With all of these people needing to be insured, the largest

    insurance firms will consistently beat out the smaller insurance firms through economies of scale.

    The largest insurance companies will be able to offer the most valuable insurance with the lowest

    premiums. This will give them even more control over the market. What about entrepreneurs

    finding innovative ways to compete with these large firms? Under the new health care act, many

    forces work against the smaller insurance companies and will prevent them from gaining any

    competitive advantage through innovation. In the required and newly created Health Insurance

    Exchanges, the benefit plans the insurance companies offer are forced to charge the same

    premiums to all patients regardless of health status. The larger firms gain the advantage through

    economy of scale. Since the smaller firms will be forced to offer the same premiums, the large

    firms will gain a competitive advantage through administration costs. The fixed costs and

    variable costs associated with each additional insurance plan allow the large insurance

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    companies to have a lower expense ratio per patient. The large firms will be able to have larger

    profit margins and will be able to lower the premiums of its insurance plans below that of the

    smaller insurance companies until profit margins are equal. If the large firms have identical

    premiums and coverage as the small firms they will enjoy the lower marginal costs. This is why

    currently the insurance companies around the United States are continuously buying up other

    insurance companies to compete on this basis.

    To make matters worse, the Obama administration announced a ruling that dictates how

    much money must be spent on insurers medical expenses. This is the minimum medical loss

    ratio or MLR. This requirement penalizes insurers who do not spend 80% (small insurance

    companies) and 85% (large insurance companies) of premium dollars on healthcare. If the

    insurer does not pay out that percentage they must give the policyholder a rebate for that amount.

    So automatically what policyholder would not want a guaranteed 5% more of their premium

    dollars spent on their health care or get a rebate back from the insurance company for that

    amount.

    In 2012, Medicare began paying fees to Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). The

    goal of the Obama administration is to eventually see all health services in an ACO. Under

    Obamacare, these added fees will hurt the small insurance companies and again cut into profits at

    a larger percentage than the large insurance companies. There is also going to be a Blue Cross/

    Blue Shield tax hike and an increased tax on health insurance providers who will most likely

    pass these added fees to the patient premium. Are these insurance companies required to pay

    fees to ACOs? Well technically, no. Realistically though, they will have to because if they do not

    adopt these ACO plans or provide insurance to hospitals and doctors who are not a part of these

    plans, they will not be able to increase premiums. Doctors and hospitals will be paid less if they

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    do not join these ACOs. This is one of the ways the Obama administration plans to gain more

    control over the medical industry. Doctors will slowly lose patients because over time they may

    not be paid by Medicare or other government programs if they are not practicing in ACOs. If the

    government can get doctors and hospitals to join these organizations, they will be able to control

    the behavior and techniques used by doctors. According to Scott Gottlieb, a former U.S. Food

    and Drug Administration deputy commissioner and writer on health policy, the ACA approach

    will stifle innovation and entrepreneurship and is already causing venture capital to leave the

    healthcare market.i If small insurers cant compete on price or innovation and venture capital

    disappears, we might as well just count them out completely. The only companies remaining

    under these assumptions will be the nationwide insurance companies. This is what I like to call

    cementing in the large insurance companies as the only real players in the future healthcare

    insurance industry. Since these nationwide insurance companies will have such a strong grasp on

    the market, they are not going to allow plans that keep them from being profitable. Any extra

    expenses or taxes will just be transferred to the policy holder. If insurers are going to be

    constrained in their ability to realize profits on their insurance business, we can look at the

    insurer in a similar way as we do to regulated utilities. They will be low growth and relatively

    low risk investments. Not to mention they are too big to fail.

    If we are going to compare the insurance industry to a utility we have to look at the

    growth rate of the countrys population since they are going to be the future of the insurance

    companies future medical costs which is growing at a staggering rate and also inflation; since

    costs will resemble inflation over time. U.S. medical spending has been growing way faster than

    other household costs. In the last decade medical spending almost doubled, it reached $2.6

    trillion in 2010.

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    With medical spending growing and the amount of people who need to be insured

    growing, the insurance companies look strong. These market dominating insurance companies

    look like great long-term buys.

    The Insurance companies in my Obamacare Portfolio are WellPoint (WLP),

    UnitedHealth (UNH) and Cigna (CI). They currently are presenting a very interesting investment

    opportunity. UNH and CI are currently trading below their enterprise value. Also their P/E ratios

    are below 12, with WLP having a P/E of 8.5.

    Although people often think Medicare is a public insurance it is not actually managed by the

    Federal government. In most places, Medicare is managed by private contractors such as Cigna

    and BlueCross. In the 1950s, BlueCross was the dominant insurer in almost every state. This

    was partially due to the fact that state legislation favored these entities over the competition.

    Does this sound a little similar to what is happening now? Once this bond was formed it was

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    nearly impossible to break. Since BlueCross was so large the hospitals would only accept

    payments in the same fashion as BlueCross. Some insurers refused to pay in the same way as

    BlueCross and the hospitals would just refuse to do business with them. This domination and

    control over the payment system has only become worse and has turned the insurers in to

    providers of care. This domination of health insurance in the 1950s resembles some of the

    similar circumstances insurance companies and hospitals are facing now with Obamacare and

    ACOs.

    The insurance companies dominate the entire payment system. They choose the amount paid

    to hospitals/doctors and for what services they will pay for. Medicare is setting about 6 billion

    prices across the United States and other countries at any one time. Medicare is regulating the

    entire transaction process between doctors and patients. There are roughly 50 million Medicare

    enrollees. If they have 1 procedure a year with all the different possible ways it can be correctly

    or incorrectly coded it would mean that Medicare is regulating 3 quadrillion

    (3,000,000,000,000,000) potential transactions.ii Now that we understand Medicare is managed

    by private contractors the government has little control over this transaction process. Even if the

    government wanted to control this transaction process, the private companies have been doing it

    for so long they would have a much more streamline and cost effective strategy. This gives the

    insurance companies an advantage when discussing the threat of new entries. These private

    companies are doing more than just setting prices; they are controlling the entire process. Not

    only is Medicare mostly managed by private insurers, but nearly 71.5% of Medicaid enrollees

    nationwide are in health plans managed by the private sector.iii These private insurers manage

    almost the entire insurance business across the country. This might be hard for some people to

    believe but U.S. insurance companies are so good at what they do, they are actually contracting

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    with other governments and exporting their business practices.iv The 32 million more Americans

    who are likely to get insurance are most likely going to end up on one of these private insurance

    plans. Revenues will definitely increase if more Americans purchase insurance (which is the

    whole goal of ObamaCare). With the new regulations, it is possible the profits realized by these

    firms may not increase as fast. We can get one thing straight though; these insurance companies

    want to remain profitable and will not participate in activities that allow them to lose money.

    Beginning in 2014, most people will be required by law to have proof of insurance attached to

    their tax return. If you are not covered by an employer plan you will have to buy insurance

    through the government regulated exchange. This is a great free marketing tool for insurance

    providers that will reduce expenses. This exchange could allow insurance providers to cut back

    on marketing tools and use those marketing dollars to reduce the cost of insurance; or stay in the

    insurers pocket for a rainy day. Since insurers will be constrained in their profitability of the

    insurance business, it leaves no incentives to try and reap rewards for developing new products.

    This means there will be less competition among companies. The ACA does not mention

    anything about returns made from invested reserves. I believe this is where the insurance

    companies are going to look to increase profits. Although it will most likely lead to riskier

    investments; if managed properly these gains could be huge. With the expected increase in

    revenues, the amount of money in these reserves will also grow much larger.

    So I started off by discussing why I believe the large insurance providers are cemented into the

    system and are here to stay. This is what makes a good investment; an investment in companies

    that have control over the industry. It has little competition and if competition were to evolve, it

    would take many years to do so. This would give you adequate time to adjust your investment

    strategy.

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    One more item worth mentioning is the new regulations and taxes that can affect the bottom

    line. One of the major issues surrounding ObamaCare and insurance companies are the

    unintended consequences of people being encouraged to remain uninsured while they are healthy

    and purchase insurance when they become sick. Under ObamaCare, insurers are required to

    insure all individuals regardless of previous health conditions. So people will be able to purchase

    insurance on the way to the hospital; if they broke their arm for example. This will cause healthy

    people to drop out of the market and only people with health issues will remain. This will in turn

    cause more healthy people to drop out of the market as the insurance premium continues to rise.

    The insurance company will always make sure it can cover costs; this potential scenario will

    only hurt the consumer because the added costs will just be transferred to them.

    Many other things are working against the insurance companies since they are required to

    charge the same premium to all enrollees regardless of health status. The premium attached to

    these high-risk individuals is too low to cover the costs of having them on the health plan. This is

    going to make it hard for these individuals to find health coverage because the insurers will

    actually compete on the basis of not insuring these high-risk individuals. This is especially true

    with the chronically ill because insurers are prohibited from imposing lifetime dollar limits on

    essential benefits. These are the patients insurers are worried about. In the health insurance pool,

    5% of enrollees will spend 50% of the money, and the top 10% will spend nearly 66% of the

    money. If insurance providers do not follow government regulations put into place by the

    government they will not be able to justify premium increases over 10 %.v This is one of the

    plans of the Obama administration that they are not talking about very much. They are trying to

    make insurers, doctors and hospitals join ACOs or they will not be able to receive as much

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    money for their services. Once in these ACOs they are going to be able to control and regulate

    these industries to conform to their policies.

    Massachusetts is the precedent for ObamaCare. Many of the new rules and regulations being

    put into place under Obamacare are currently in place in Massachusetts. The industry is

    particularly worried about individuals they call jumpers and dumpers who receive the care

    they need and then drop coverage once their medical bills have been paid. This problem has been

    growing more popular.

    Seeking Alpha called insurance companies dead men walking. This is because they

    believe people will buy insurance on the way to the hospital which will lead to decreased

    enrollment, increased premiums and falling profits.vi

    The new insurance plans are required to cover certain preventive services such as

    mammograms and colonoscopies with no co-payment. The list is very extensive, all of these

    added services will be provided without paying a co-payment. Even if insurance companies are

    required to cover all patients regardless of health status, are prohibited to apply lifetime dollar

    limits, and might only insure the sick. You can bet they will keep their bottom line profitable.

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    All these possible increases in cost and premiums will be transferred to other people. The

    insurance companies will charge patients more money for less care, or will pay the doctors and

    hospitals less for their services. In the end insurance companies control the payment process and

    will find a way to remain profitable.

    ObamaCares overall goal is to provide affordable health insurance for all U.S. citizens.

    Currently the U.S. healthcare system has a total bill of $2,800,000,000 that is roughly $9,000 a

    year for every man, women and child.vii In 2011, 48.6 million Americans went without insurance.

    These citizens are now going to receive an additional tax, if they do not obtain health insurance.

    These individuals will most likely comply and purchase an insurance policy; because they are

    still going to receive healthcare. This tax will just add to the out of pocket health expenses

    individuals will have to pay to receive care.

    Health insurance costs per capita have been rising at twice the rate of per capita income

    for the past 40 years.viii With a track record like that, it is going to be hard to slow down the cost

    of Medicare. Obamacare is attempting to stop the rising costs.

    Since insurance companies are expecting to insure millions of more Americans we have

    to discuss how this cements in the remaining industries involved in healthcare. The industries

    we are focusing on in this report are Hospitals, Drug Distributors, Pharmaceuticals/Preventive

    Care, and Medical Device companies. We described earlier how the largest insurance companies

    control the entire transaction process, while many Americans pay a minimal co-payment or only

    a minute portion of their medical bill.

    What I am going to argue is that since individuals are only paying for a portion of their

    medical bills, they will consume until out of pocket costs, equal medical care. The whole

    principle is people will behave differently when they are spending other peoples money. Good

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    health is a priceless asset in most peoples eyes. On average, only 10 cents out of every dollar

    you spend at a physicians office is coming out of the patients pocket.ix The remainder is paid

    by a third party; an employer, insurer or the government. Under Obamacare these incentives will

    become even worse per individual; plus the millions of currently uninsured individuals who will

    be guaranteed the long list of preventive services available to them at no cost. The only cost will

    be your valuable time due to the large increases in waiting lists and lines to see your medical

    provider.

    Once an individual pays their insurance premium, that money is combined with every

    other individuals premium in a pool. Once people hit this pool of money which is no longer

    their money, they will consume an even larger amount of care to benefit from the free medical

    care.x When something is free, the temptation is to take everything that is offered.

    This is only going to continue because individuals are not willing to manage their own

    health policies. It is also in their best interest to continue to have their employer pay for

    insurance. Employer-paid premiums avoid federal income tax, and also state and local tax.

    Individuals are not able to purchase their insurance with pretax dollars like employers can. Also,

    insurance companies do not want to deal with individuals because it leads to larger

    administration costs. So individuals are going to continue to have insurance paid for by their

    employee due to the money incentive they gain.

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    This is the same for most of the uninsured people as well because most of them do not

    have access to employer-provided health insurance. So all the incentives to continue to spend

    more on healthcare only worsens. These people will continue to consume until its value at

    margin approaches zero. Since the cost of care is well above zero, unconstrained patients will

    consume healthcare resources very wastefully. This over consumption of individuals is going to

    lead to large profits for Drug Distributors, Biotech companies, Pharmaceuticals/Preventive care

    and hospitals.

    The next industry in line after the insurance companies is the Hospitals that facilitate the

    health care to the patients. Since the hospitals are the actual provider of health care they do hold

    some bargaining power when it comes to pricing. Even though they hold some bargaining power,

    there are subsidies in place that allow the hospitals to continue operations. These subsidies help

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    accommodate the hospitals needs. These subsidies usually lead to the hospitals to bargain with

    the government over subsidies more than bargaining with the insurance companies over pricing.

    With this current system it allows for the insurance companies to continue to run the system

    while the government picks up the additional charges.

    The first reason why I believe the hospitals are cemented into the program is because

    under ACA, up to 30 million additional people will be insured. ACA will also lead to the rest of

    the population to have more generous coverage. The result of this will most likely lead to

    demand for medical care to exceed the supply. This will lead to longer waiting times and shorter

    doctor visits. What this will also mean is the hospitals will have more demand for their services

    than supply. In basic economics you learn when demand rises and supply does not this will lead

    to price increases that will benefit the hospitals.

    These price increases won't affect the non-profit hospitals or the government owned

    hospitals, it will directly impact the for-profit hospitals. For-profit hospitals usually provide

    highly profitable services and do not offer the services that are unprofitable. They specialize in

    these high profit medical services and leave the other services for the non-profits and

    government hospitals. Is this right or wrong? Well, I don't think that is a question of morals. I

    think it is good business practice that the for-profit companies realize the government must

    provide these services regardless of profitability. This hole in the system leads to for-profit

    hospitals to not provide certain services due to low profitability. This may lead to a tax in the

    future; which I am not against. That is the future though and right now this way of operations

    leads to higher profit margins by specializing its services.

    For-profit hospitals often times are located in strategic locations. They locate themselves

    in high income areas where most patients are privately insured or have more disposable income.

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    By being located in areas of high income patients it also increases the chance these patients will

    take part in surgeries that are more expensive and often times more profitable.

    The locations of hospitals already operating literally "cements" them into the current

    system. People are always going to receive medical care from places located closer to their home

    if all other things are equal. With the increase in insured individuals the amount of people

    looking to receive medical care will only grow larger. This means the hospitals will constantly

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    have a supply of customers. A supply that will only get larger over time. Since good health is a

    priceless asset, these for-profit hospitals are poised to grow revenues and profits.

    The most important thing to take out of the hospital industry is that for-profit hospitals

    prioritize their goals differently than non-profits and government hospitals. They are able to

    benefit by not offering low profit services because other hospitals (who do not care if they make

    a profit) will provide the necessary services to the patients. When hospitals do provide services

    to indigent and uninsured patients they receive payments from the government to offset these

    costs. These payments are categorized as Disproportionate Share Hospitals or (DSH). They also

    provide 340B Price Controls which forces the drug manufacturers to give discounts to outpatient

    clinics and hospitals that treat a high number of lower profit patients. It is estimated this will be

    around 20,000 facilities under ACA.xi

    With higher reimbursement rates the hospitals will be huge winners that directly affect

    the bottom line. They will have higher reimbursement rates because more patients will be

    insured, this means there will be fewer indigent and Medicaid patients. These patients acquire

    high medical bills and don't pay any money. They are one of the biggest reasons hospitals have

    lower profits. The hospital industry has about $40 billion in unpaid medical bills every yearxii.

    Under Obamacare this amount of unpaid medical bills should decrease dramatically.

    Over the years hospitals have been quietly consolidating, this has allowed them to have

    hospital systems that "dominate" regional markets. This allows them to gain more bargaining

    power to dictate higher prices from insurers. The median operating margin for 200-bed hospitals

    and above in 2011 was slightly negative at (-0.7%)xiii.

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    Another way hospitals are becoming highly profitable is often not observed by most

    people. They are becoming more profitable through amenities provided to the rich. A writing in

    the New York Times, Nina Bernstein observed the rooms and compared them to a Four

    Seasons.xiv The bed linens were by Frette, Italian purveyors of high-thread-count sheets to popes

    and princes. The bathroom gleamed with polished marble. Huge windows displayed panoramic

    East River views. And in the hush of her $2,400 suite, a man in a black vest and tie proffered an

    elaborate menu and told her, "I'll be your butler."

    It was Greenberg 14 south, the elite wing on the new penthouse floor of New-York-

    Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Hospital. Pampering and decor to rival a grand hotel, if not a

    Downtown Abbey, have long been the hallmark of such "amenities unites", often hidden behind

    closed doors at New York's premier hospitals. But the phenomenon is escalating here and around

    the country, healthcare design specialists say, part of an international competition for wealthy

    patients willing to pay extra, even as the federal government cuts back.

    These healthy patients are highly profitable to the hospitals and since they have so much

    money, the rising cost of health care does not affect them. They want to receive the best care,

    with the most amenities regardless of price. These patients are also able to receive care with little

    to no waiting times because they are paying for it out of pocket and most people cannot afford

    these services.

    The other industries that will benefit from Obamacare are the Pharmaceutical and

    Biotechnology companies. This is pretty much a no brainer. Yes, there will be added taxes on

    branded drugs and drug makers must provide higher rebates to Medicaid for prescription drugs.

    This will amount to millions of dollars in lost profit, but let's be honest; these costs are a drop in

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    the bucket to the large corporations. The worst part about this is it might lead to less innovation

    because the drugs will not be as profitable. Or even worse the pharmaceutical companies will

    just raise the price to cover this new tax (which is already happening). But the drugs already on

    the market are still going to be purchased by people around the world. Like I said before,

    people's attitude toward their health is that it is priceless. People are not going to decide not to

    buy Advil because it costs 50 cents more than a year ago.

    The preventive care industry will see an increase in business under Obamacare, due to the

    belief that preventive care is the answer to lowering medical costs. Many of these preventive care

    solutions include screenings, vaccines and biotechnology processes. Also with insurance

    companies required to bring in 80-85% of revenue from medical procedures, the insurance

    companies will be pushing preventive care and medication drugs on its patients.

    Johnson and Johnson (JNJ), one of the companies in my Obamacare portfolio will benefit

    under Obamacare because it has products in virtually every portion of healthcare. Its

    pharmaceuticals include anti-infective, dermatology, contraceptive, antipsychotic, hematology,

    oncology, immunology, neurology, pain management, infectious diseases and vaccines. The

    expanded coverage means greater utilization of health care.

    Big pharmaceutical companies have been spending millions of dollars on lobbying efforts

    to pass the health care bill. They would not be doing this if they did not believe that the reform

    would hold certain benefits for them. They actually agreed to save the Medicare system billions

    of dollars a year on prescription drugs. What was their motive? I believe they were motivated by

    insuring that certain proposals in the bill were not put through. One most importantly is the

    importing of cheaper drugs from Canada. Also they have longer patents on generic versions of

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    biotech drugs. They wanted to make sure they had a strong grasp on the American market since

    it was expecting to have millions of more Americans in insurance plans under Obamacare.

    Now comes the companies that are flying under the radar in my eyes. The drug

    distributors, the ones we are focusing on are CVS, WAG, ABC, MCK and CAH. These

    companies face no added taxes and no new regulations. All they will see is a pure volume

    increase in drug distribution. The market for distributing pharmaceutical drugs is a $300-billion

    market.xv AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson are three companies in my

    Obamacare portfolio; their combined market share exceeds 90%. Generic drugs account for

    about 9% of revenue for the Big 3 but account for 56% of profits.xvi As Obamacare slowly

    pushes towards more cost effective generics this will only increase profits.

    These distributors serve pharmacies, hospitals, physician offices and the drug

    manufacturers (who they buy the drugs from). As we know under Obamacare these

    pharmaceutical companies should see an increase in sales due to the amount of people becoming

    insured under Obamacare. Not to mention if people do choose not to become insured under

    Obamacare they will still require these drugs to stay healthy. So regardless of what happens these

    companies will see a gradual increase in sales. CVS Caremark estimates the newly insured may

    rise to more than 200 million additional prescriptions annually, an increase of more than 4%.xvii

    All these increases come with no additional taxes or regulations.

    So there is a threat to these companies, and that is if the national retail chains decide to

    eliminate the middle man (the drug distributors) and buy them directly from the manufactures.

    That leaves us with CVS and WAG. CVS and WAG supply drugs to the end users, the patients

    who pick up their new prescription. Under Obamacare the number of people visiting the doctor is

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    expected to increase which means the number of prescriptions should also increase. Leading to

    more sales and more profits for these retail chains.

    But wait, there is more; as the hospitals become overly crowded people will be more

    willing to pay for MinuteClinics which are located at CVS stores. These MinuteClinics cover the

    basic medical attention needs like vaccinations. Under Obamacare professionals are expecting a

    huge rise in the number of people trying to receive care from hospitals and medical offices.

    When people get sick of waiting 30 minutes(or more) for a 5 minute vaccination they will be

    more willing to pay out of pocket (at these MinuteClinics) for small medical needs that do not

    require a doctor, but rather can employ a nurse practioner who makes much less money. I have

    personally used these MinuteClinics to get my yearly influenza vaccination. They are quick and

    easy (and do not cost very much money, especially if you put a high value on your time).

    Overall, I feel like the healthcare industry in general will profit from Obamacare if they can

    enlarge their market share, keep administrative costs under control, manage the regulation

    appropriately, and find ways to overcome and circumvent the shortage of doctors, nurses, and

    other healthcare workers who will be needed to move all these potential patients into their

    service and profit areas. The companies I have chosen to put in my Obamacare portfolio have

    good management and established themselves in the industry. These large market cap companies

    that revolve around the medical care industry are exactly the companies I think investors should

    focus on. This report is used as a guideline to explain why I believe the medical care industry is

    going to show strong growth in the future. The companies you decide to invest in may be

    different than the ones I have chosen. I think overall if you invest in established, well managed

    companies you will do great.

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    My investing strategy is a dollar-cost averaging strategy where you make an initial

    investment. After that initial investment you must follow the stock price from its most recent

    high, where you will continually invest more money if it rises or falls. More shares are purchased

    when prices fall and less shares are purchased when prices rise. Conventional Dollar-Cost

    Averaging you buy more shares regardless if the stock price rises or falls. My personal strategy

    is to buy 20% more if the stock falls 8% from its most recent high. If it falls another 8% from

    that level I will purchase 25% of the initial investment. If it continues to fall from that level

    another 10%, I will purchase 35% of the initial investment.xviii I will be selling shares as stock

    prices rise depending on how the stocks expected return matches my required return. Some

    personal investment insight must be used during this strategy, especially if you see strong

    fundamental changes revolving around the company.

    i

    Goodman, John.Priceless: Curing The HealthCare Crisis. Oakland, CA: The Independent Institute, 2012. 263.Print.ii Goodman, John.Priceless: Curing The HealthCare Crisis. Oakland, CA: The Independent Institute, 2012. 236.Printiii ("Medicaid Managed Care Enrollment Report" Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services,https://www.cms.gov/MediciadDataSourceGenInfo/downloads/2010trends.pdfiv Goodman, John.Priceless: Curing The HealthCare Crisis. Oakland, CA: The Independent Institute, 2012. 92.Printv Mark W Stanton "The High Concentration of US Healthcare Expenditures"http://www.ahrq.gov/research/rlqlq/expendria.pdfvi Obamacare Part 1 - Will Insurance Companies Survive? , http://seekingalpha.com/article/696821-obamacare-part-i-will-insurance-companies-survivevii (obamacarefacts.com)viii

    Goodman, John.Priceless: Curing The HealthCare Crisis. Oakland, CA: The Independent Institute, 2012. 287.Print.

    ix Goodman, John.Priceless: Curing The HealthCare Crisis. Oakland, CA: The Independent Institute, 2012. 269.Print.

    x Goodman, John.Priceless: Curing The HealthCare Crisis. Oakland, CA: The Independent Institute, 2012. 118.Print.

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    xi Goodman, John.Priceless: Curing The HealthCare Crisis. Oakland, CA: The Independent Institute, 2012. 80.Print.xii Five Obamacare Winner In Second Presidential Term, BruceJapsen,http://www.forbes.com/sites/brucejapsen/2012/11/07/five-obamacare-winners-in-second-presidential-term/xiiixiii Forbes Article, America's Most Profitable Hospitals, by David Whelan, page

    2,http://www.forbes.com/2010/08/30/profitable-hospitals-hca-healthcare-business-mayo-clinic_2.htmlxiv New York Times, Nina Bernstein. From Priceless, Curing the Healthcare Crisis. Written by John C. Goodman.page 101.xv Turner Investments, Why the Big Three drug distributors could get bigger,http://www.turnerinvestments.com/why-the-big-three-drug-distributors-could-get-bigger/xvi Turner Investments, Why the Big Three drug distributors could get bigger,http://www.turnerinvestments.com/why-the-big-three-drug-distributors-could-get-bigger/

    xvii Turner Investments, Why the Big Three drug distributors could get bigger,http://www.turnerinvestments.com/why-the-big-three-drug-distributors-could-get-bigger/

    Goodman, John.Priceless: Curing The HealthCare Crisis. Oakland, CA: The Independent Institute, 2012. 1. Print.

    xviii This investment strategy is based off of a strategy I was shown by my old co-worker William Cerone at MerrillLynch.