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Joe Biden, the former vice president, outperformed expectations in key primary states on Super Tuesday, setting up a rally in the stocks of the health-insurance companies threatened by Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All plan.

Shares of UnitedHealth Group (UNH) were up 8.9% in premarket trading on Wednesday, while shares of Cigna (CI) were up 7.3% and Anthem (ANTM) had gained 8.8%. S&P 500 futures were up 2.3%, likely driven by Biden’s success.

“The Super Tuesday reaction we believe will spur positive returns across the Healthcare Insurance peer group, as well as other sub-sectors closely associated with any overhang related to industry tweaks/changes as promised by the Sanders camp,” wrote Jefferies health-care trading-desk analyst Jared Holz on Wednesday morning. “A fluid situation to say the least, with more states to host election gatherings over the course of the month.”

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Health-insurance stocks began their rally on Monday afternoon, as both Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar ended their campaigns and threw their support to Biden. The S&P 500 Managed Health Care index, which includes leading health-insurance firms, jumped at 1:30 p.m. on Monday, and ended the day up 6.7%, while the broader S&P 500 Health Care index rose 4.8%. The managed health care index fell with the rest of the market on Tuesday, as Covid-19 fears resurfaced, but appeared set to jump on Wednesday morning.

Still, the primary campaign is far from over, and as Biden’s surge shows, remains highly dynamic. While Biden secured his comeback on Tuesday, taking much of the south, including Texas, and New York CIty mayor Michael Bloomberg seemed to fade into the dust, many contests remain. Sanders won California, the single biggest source of Democratic convention delegates, on Tuesday, as well as Colorado and Utah. As of Wednesday morning, Biden had amassed 453 delegates, according to NBC, while Sanders had 373. A candidate would need 1,991 to clinch the nomination.

Biden’s surge is good news for insurance companies not only because of his opposition to Medicare for All, which would severely disrupt the employer-based insurance industry, but also for his support for strengthening of the Obama-era Affordable Care Act, which could be good for companies that have had success on the exchanges set up under that legislation.

In a note out Tuesday, Citi Research analyst Ralph Giacobbe wrote that Biden’s new status was good for Centene (CNC), which specializes in government-backed plans.

“We view the Democratic Party coalescing and providing some momentum around Biden as disproportionately favorable to CNC given Biden’s approach to building on ACA and CNC’s success in the market,” Giacobbe wrote.

Write to Josh Nathan-Kazis at josh.nathan-kazis@barrons.com