Shares of several health insurers were sinking on Wednesday. Centene (NYSE: CNC) stock was down 7.9% as of 12:13 p.m. ET, while CVS Health (NYSE: CVS) and Humana (NYSE: HUM) shares were falling 6.1% and 13.9%, respectively.

The declines for each of the health insurance stocks stemmed from comments made by an executive of rival UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) at the Goldman Sachs Global Healthcare Conference. Reuters reported that Tim Noel, CEO of UnitedHealthcare Medicare and Retirement, said at the conference that his company is seeing an increase in the volume of elective surgical procedures for older Americans.

During the worst part of the COVID-19 pandemic, many seniors delayed their planned elective procedures. Noel stated, "We're seeing that more seniors are just more comfortable accessing services for things that they might have pushed off a bit like knees and hips." 

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Source Fool.com