Stock trades may show Obamacare leak from Supreme Court

The Supreme Court’s stunning rejuvenation of the Obamacare mandate into a new tax didn’t leak to Washington D.C. insiders — but it appears that it may have leaked to yet-unknown Wall Street investors.

In a brief 10-minute period starting at 9:32 a.m., the stock value of the nation’s largest hospital chain, HCA Holdings Inc., jumped from $26.81 per share to $27.53 as bidders bought several hundred thousand shares before the court made its announcement just after 10 a.m.

The bidders who snatched up shares before the announcement made a gain of roughly $2 a share once the price rose again after the court officially announced its backing for the law.

The bidding and the price jump came more than 30 minutes before Chief Justice John Roberts read his unexpected decision from the bench.

At roughly 10:06 a.m., Roberts announced that the law was constitutional, providing it was reinterpreted as a tax increase.

In 2010, the law was passed by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama as a federal mandate on personal conduct — not as a tax.

Had the court struck down the law, the hospitals’ stock price would likely have fallen — costing the secret buyers much of their cash — because the hospitals stand to gain revenue from the Obamacare law.