Health Insurers Fall as Government-Backed Growth Grinds to Halt

US health insurers that provide government insurance to the elderly rallied when Donald Trump was elected, with Wall Street cheering an administration it believed would boost business. It hasn’t.

On Monday, insurance stocks cratered on a proposal from the Trump administration to limit federal payments to the plans, known as Medicare Advantage, next year. Then on Tuesday, UnitedHealth Group Inc. forecast its annual revenues will shrink this year for the first time since the 1980s — partially as a result of other federal changes over the last few years undercutting its strategy.

Some of the pullback in government support has ...