Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Health Insurance, Cannabis, & Apple 4-8-25
Tue, 08 Apr 2025
In this episode, Scott Becker breaks down three key stories: a Medicare Advantage rate hike lifting health insurers, ongoing struggles in the cannabis market, and Apple’s recent stock decline
Chapter 1: What are the recent changes to Medicare Advantage rates?
This is Scott Becker with the Becker Private Equity and Business Podcast. Today's discussion is health insurance, cannabis, and Apple. So here's three of the things that we watch and we'll talk about this. First, the health insurers are surging today as President Trump agrees to raise the rates to Medicare Advantage insurers. This is in some ways, it's a shot in the arm to insurers
Chapter 2: How do Medicare Advantage rate hikes affect health insurers and providers?
Chapter 3: What is the current state of the cannabis market, specifically Tilray Brands?
It's a shot in the backside to physicians and hospitals and to Americans. This Medicare Advantage is awful, but this will help private Medicare plans. They're going to get a big boost from the Trump administration. Just awful, but Humana United up on this today. Second, Tilray Brands, which is one of the huge cannabis stocks, is down about 57% year-to-date.
Cannabis stocks continue to get pummeled in our country. Can't quite get over the finish line in terms of regulatory issues and what is still the outside illegal market versus the legal market. But at the end of the day, a few years ago, as a cannabis investor, it went poorly. I was a Bitcoin investor as well. That went poorly. Bitcoin rebounded. Cannabis has not. We'll see how that goes.
Finally, Apple and Nvidia are each down 27% year to date. I don't know which of the two I'd buy if I had my choice, but each down 27% year to date. Apple long-term, probably a solid holding. I've, of course, got it through my index funds, which I'm primarily an index fund investor. Thank you for listening to the Becker Private Equity and Business Podcast. Thank you very, very much.