Health Care Winners & Losers: Lifepoint

NEW YORK -- Shares of Hospital operators slipped with the market Monday, and as a Goldman Sachs analyst said, the companies are not as protected against an economic downturn as they have been in the past.

Matthew Borsch kept a "Neutral" rating on the sector. He said the companies are deeply in debt, and they are carrying larger amounts of bad debt, or debt from treating patients who have no insurance or are underinsured. As a result, they are not as defensive as they once were in an economic downturn.

Negative economic news sent major indices significantly lower in Monday trading, and that included most hospital stocks.

However, the analyst said shares of Community Health Systems (CYH Quote) and LifePoint Hospitals (LPNT Quote) are safer than their peers, and could gain ground. He said the gradual implementation of U.S. health care reform could help hospital stocks because it may partially cancel out economic difficulties. ...