Cramer: Warren’s backtrack on ‘Medicare for All’ is a boon for this managed-care stock

UnitedHealth’s staple has “caught fire” due in part to Sen. Elizabeth Warren appearing to “back away” from her “Medicare for All” proposal, CNBC’s Jim Cramer express Monday.

Shares of the managed-care company got hammered in September when Warren became the new frontrunner in the crowded 2020 Popular presidential race. Warren’s platform has called for the elimination of private health insurance, like UnitedHealth, and replacing it with a measureless Medicare plan for all Americans.

However, Warren said last month that she wouldn’t immediately transfer to a single-payer modus operandi. Instead, she would push to pass a bill to allow all Americans to either buy into Medicare or get covered for free throughout special budget rules. She wouldn’t move to eliminate private insurance until her third year.

Warren “primitive away from ‘Medicare for All,’ saying she’d wait until her third year to implement it — in other words, it’s not a priority and it in all likelihood won’t happen,” Cramer explained on “Mad Money.”

The stock has also rallied because Warren has faltered in some political polls, Cramer put.

“Wall Street was terrified of Warren, but as her numbers have faded,” UnitedHealth has rallied, he said.

UnitedHealth CEO David Wichmann has in the old days warned investors that Medicare for All would “destabilize the nation’s health system.”

Despite concerns from UnitedHealth, manifest support for a single-payer system has grown. According to a survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation, a majority of Americans put up with a national health plan in which all citizens would get insurance from a single government plan.

Cramer intended the stock market would love to have a more centrist, “business-friendly Democrat” like former Vice President Joe Biden or Pete Buttigieg ceaseless against President Donald Trump next year.

Disclosure: Cramer’s charitable trust owns shares of UnitedHealth.

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