When Policy Sneezes, Insurers Catch a Cold

Dow futures are lagging today, weighed down by a sharp ~15% drop in UnitedHealth (UNH) after the Trump administration floated only a modest increase in Medicare insurer payment rates. Translation: Washington tapped the brakes, Wall Street slammed them. 🧠📉

The proposal clouded UNH’s otherwise solid 2026 adjusted profit outlook (which was above analyst expectations), and the selling quickly spread — Humana, CVS, and friends all took a hit. Same sector, same fear, same macro overreaction.

But here’s the plot twist 👀
Earlier this year, insiders were buying UNH aggressively — and not with lunch money:

• 💼 CEO Stephen Hemsley: ~$25M around $289

• 💰 CFO John Rex: ~$5M around $291

• 🧠 Directors piling in between $270–$320

That’s not panic buying. That’s conviction buying.

Policy noise hurts headlines. It doesn’t rewrite moats overnight. If you liked UnitedHealth at $500+, it’s hard to argue it suddenly became “bad” near insider-heavy levels.

🎯 Carpe Diem takeaway:
Markets hate uncertainty. Insiders love value. Sometimes both show up on the same day.