7 Reasons To Watch Aetna Next Week

By Skyler Greene: It's no secret that many retail investors have been fleeing equities for bonds in recent times. In light of bad jobs reports and a constant stream of dramatic headlines from Europe, investors want a "safe haven" - something they can count on.

ByLouis Dematteis:It's a question all healthcare investors want to know the answer to first. How will Obamacare affect the health insurance sector? Judging by the price action in the shares of the largest health insurance companies by market cap since the passage of the Affordable Care Act in March 2010, evidence suggests that investors are cautiously optimistic, though there is no overwhelming evidence that investors are placing bets one way or the other. (click to enlarge)

By Turnkey Analyst:Joseph Piotroski is famous for creating the F-Score, an accounting-based fundamental analysis and stock-picking strategy that assesses firms along nine financial dimensions. Generally speaking, if a firm achieves a perfect score, its financial picture is improving, and there are statistical reasons to believe it may be undervalued.

I've heard a lot of arguments that health care reform will increase the rate of entrepreneurship.  Most of them go along the lines of this piece from Jonathan Gruber: lack of an alternative source of health insurance creates "job lock", where employees are afraid to switch jobs.  The better your recourse to alternate insurance, the more likely you are to be self-employed.

(cc photo by donielle) BA writes in to say I should write more about transparent pricing in medical services:

The health care bill passed! As you know, my view is this: For all its flaws, if signed into law this bill would be the greatest progressive social policy achievement in over forty years. It’s fine not to be satisfied with this legislation, but it’s perverse not to be happy about it. The important thing is to try to make sure that we don’t need to wait another forty years before additional major improvements become possible. Thought I might also reprint my boss, John Podesta’s, statement on this since he doesn’t even have a blog: