Some thing tells me that United thinks that the government trough for health plans will continue to overflow a while longer. Apparently it’s planning to buy Pacificare for a mere $7-8 billion. Pacificare shares jumped 10% and then were halted at around $82 on the news.

This means that despite Pacificare’s great run over the last year, United at least thinks, that government based plans (especially Medicare) will continue to see more than their fair share of growth. Pacificare’s stock was below $30 when the Medicare bill was passed and those fools who thought that HMO stocks were over the top then (i.e. me and Don Johnson at least), well it shows that we’re fallible!

Again, no one told me in advance, grump, grump.

In other buying news, Philips is adding to its PACS business by buying ASP PACS vendor Stentor.