Plunge in Health-Insurance Stocks Recalls ‘Dark Days’ of the Financial Crisis

Attendees listen as Senator Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont and 2020 presidential candidate, speaks during a campaign rally in Los Angeles on March 23, 2019.Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg

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By Cristin Flanagan and Tatiana Darie

April 17, 2019 at 11:50 AM UTC

Updated on

April 17, 2019 at 2:16 PM UTC

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The free-fall in health insurance stocks is reviving memories of the 2008 financial crisis on Wall Street.

"In recent days the stocks have behaved more like they did in the dark days of 2008-2010, when we were dealing with relentless EPS guidance cuts, a global stock market meltdown, a severe global economic recession, and a deeply unsettling ACA sausage-making process in D.C.," Stephens analyst Scott Fidel wrote in a note, after the insurance stocks, along with hospitals, lost $28 billion in market value on Tuesday.