Good morning from the Financial Times.

Today is Wednesday, January 28th, and this is your FT News Briefing.

U.S. health insurance stocks are feeling under the weather, and there's a new trade deal on the block.

Plus, Nordic countries are hoping the Greenland debacle will make NATO focus on Arctic security.

I'm Sonia Hudson, and here's the news you need to start your day.

Shares of American health insurance groups plunged yesterday.

The Trump administration proposed no increase to Medicare payments to those companies next year.

Medicare is a federal health insurance program for Americans 65 and older.

Shares of United Health and Humana dropped around 20%. Patrick Temple West covers

health care for the FT. He is here to make sense of these moves for us. Hi, Patrick. Hello, Sonia.

Can you just put this in context for us? What is the administration's proposal?

Late Monday, CMS, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, put out this announcement

about its proposed rate change for 2027. The government does it every year. What was really

surprising is CMS said no increase, less than a a tenth of a percent increase, which is basically

flat for 2027. Health insurance companies take government money and then provide the health care

services for millions and millions of Americans. So when the government says that it's not going to

increase the rate below inflation and below

Wall Street investors and the companies were expecting, that really spooked the market.

And just how crucial are these Medicare payments for the insurance companies?

These add up to billions of dollars for the companies.

There are several different categories of

Medicare coverage plans for senior citizens. Medicare Advantage is the one where they partner with

...