Betting on Obama healthcare

As the health care debate continues to its next phase, the far left decides as to whether or not President Obama is still their champion. Stocks like Aetna (AET) and United Health (UNH) have reacted. When Secretary Sebelius commented on Sunday that the public option in the health care reform bill was not an absolute must, traders interpreted this as it was dead.   They are probably right!  

On Monday, Aetna and UNH were both up over 5% on a day when the stock market was down about 2%. 

These stocks have really been in play during this debate. They tanked when President Obama made it clear that he wanted the public option and rallied as the argument became weaker and weaker. 

But is it over?   There is no doubt about it the proponents of the public option are eating some humble pie right now, and some liberals are gearing up for a fight against the moderates in their own party.

Even if you can't stand President Obama's polices, you can't deny the fact that he is a one of the smoothest political operators there is. It is obvious that he redirecting the party's focus to the health care co-ops , since there are just not enough votes for the public option.    

The administration is simply letting his liberal base of his party down gently as he gears up and refocuses for the co-op debate.   The devil will be in the details as to whether or not these health care co-ops  will be able to compete against the huge Insurance companies.   The game may have shifted, but these co-op debates should be heating up as soon as the Democrats become one big happy family again.