The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Paul R. La Monica. Other than Time Warner, the parent of CNNMoney, Abbott Laboratories and AbbVie, La Monica does not own positions in any individual stocks.
The president is not going to like reading this. But I've got some more troubling news to share about Obamacare.
It's bad enough that the HealthCare.gov site makes Ticketmaster.com look like an exemplar of reliability. But it is also becoming increasingly obvious that the giant health insurance companies are the biggest winners of the Affordable Care Act ... and not the consumers who need insurance.
Humana (HUM) and Cigna (CI) both hit all-time highs Thursday. WellPoint (WLP) is trading just shy of the record price it reached Wednesday. Aetna (AET) and UnitedHealth (UNH) are only about 2% below their peaks.
The iShares US Healthcare Providers exchange-traded fund (IHF), which owns these Big Five insurers as well as shares of hospital operators and nursing homes, is up nearly 35% this year -- better than the broader market. And most of the big insurers have outperformed the IHF.
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