As Senate Floats Deeper Medicaid Cuts, Fitch’s Outlook Sours for Insurers

Jun 20
Jun 20, 2025

Citing, in part, an increased likelihood that “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” will make significant cuts to government-funded health care programs, Fitch Ratings on June 17 downgraded its outlook for the U.S. health insurance sector from “neutral” to “deteriorating.”

Brad Ellis, senior director of North American insurance ratings at Fitch, says the move “does not necessarily mean there will be negative rating actions.” But it does suggest that “conditions in the sector are likely to add downward pressure to the credit profiles of companies” in the health insurance industry, he tells AIS Health, a division of MMIT.
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Leslie Small

Leslie has been working in journalism since 2009 and reporting on the health care industry since 2014. She has covered the many ups and downs of the Affordable Care Act exchanges, the failed health insurer mega-mergers, and hundreds of other storylines spanning subjects such as Medicaid managed care, Medicare Advantage, employer-sponsored insurance, and prescription drug coverage. As the managing editor of Health Plan Weekly and Radar on Drug Benefits, she writes and edits for both publications while overseeing a small team of reporters who also focus on the managed care sector. Before joining AIS Health, she was a senior editor for the e-newsletter Fierce Health Payer, and she started her career as a copy editor at multiple local newspapers. She graduated with a dual degree in journalism and political science from Penn State University.