Oliver Marti, manager of the healthcare portfolio at Columbus Circle investors, speaks about the impact of the  current political environment on healthcare stocks.  

TWST: One of the main concerns of investors with health care, especially with the election next year, is the political environment.

Mr. Marti: Yes, absolutely. Through the Medicare and  Medicaid programs, the government pays for ~50% of healthcare expenditures in the US. So the political parties in Washington do have an influence on how healthcare spending is allocated. Democrats tend to be a little bit more focused toward a more socialized healthcare program, whereas the Republicans tend to shape healthcare policy decisions with a free market system in mind. So with the elections coming up, health care is going to be a very prominent focus. Health care is always a key agenda item for the elections and creates a lot of media headlines. Any time there is a change in the oval office leadership, there is uncertainty regarding policy change. For now, what is important to keep in mind is that regardless of who is elected, any new changes would not occur until 2010 at the earliest and, in fact, even Hillary Clinton, who is currently a front-runner of the Democratic Party, has said that any major changes, such as universal health care, would not occur until at least her second term. And so I think it is going to be many years before any real significant changes are made on the healthcare front, if any, but it is certainly something to keep on the radar screen.

For more information, click here.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 28th, 2007 at 1:54 pm and is filed under Consumer Stocks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.