Health Care Reform and Your Health Stocks

Now that the U.S. election season is over and Barack Obama is set to move into the White House in January, health care analysts are gearing up for policy changes that could affect stocks throughout the sector.

Sen. Max Baucus (D., Mont.) has already presented his Call for Action Health Reform 2009, which would require every American to have health insurance coverage -- once affordable health care is made available. Such a mandate, he argues, would take the burden of the uninsured off of the insured.

With such reform plans surfacing even before the president-elect has taken the oath of office, it seems clear that health care reform will be a top priority for the new administration. But with tightening budgets and growing pressure to make effective changes, the question could be how to do more with less. And for investors, the question is which companies are likely to feel the effects, good and bad.

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