The diversity of the health care industry can add to its appeal. Its innovations aren’t limited to genetically engineered cancer cures.

Also promising are the digitization of medicine, through services like UnitedHealth’s Optum, a pharmacy benefit manager, and the push to make care more accessible to consumers, through outfits like CVS’s in-store MinuteClinics, said Eddie L. Yoon, manager of the Fidelity Select Health Care Portfolio. UnitedHealth was recently the Fidelity fund’s top holding.

The digitization of health care will resemble the evolution of Amazon, Mr. Yoon said. “Amazon was originally just a bookstore, but it evolved into what it is today. If you think of health care today, we’re still just at the bookstore stage.” Mr. Yoon’s fund returned 31.46 percent in 2019.

A traditional argument for betting on health care is that people need treatment regardless of the strength of the economy, and so the industry resists recessions and buffers the stock market’s ups and downs. The actual evidence is mixed, however, said Leemore S. Dafny, a health care economist and professor at Harvard Business School. Multiple studies have shown that growth in health care spending correlates strongly with the economy, she said.

One study found that, after the last recession, 70 percent of the slowdown in the growth of health care spending stemmed from the sluggish recovery. Another noted that the increased prevalence of high-deductible insurance coverage and greater cost sharing between employers and employees probably contributed to the spending slowdown’s persistence.

“That would suggest health care is not recession-proof, though it may be more so than other sectors,” Professor Dafny said. “I’d expect that to be even truer today because there’s greater consumer cost sharing.”

If investors do opt to bet on health care, they will face the perennial choice between an actively managed fund, like those overseen by Dr. Bakri of T. Rowe Price or Mr. Yoon of Fidelity, or a passively managed offering built around a sector index.