Health Care – Managed Care: First

Vaulting from runner-up to claim his first No. 1 finish is Barclays’s Joshua Raskin. “He is very good at digging into the details and diving into issues that others refuse to touch,” cheers one advocate. Raskin is bullish despite negative market sentiment related to uncertainty over the outcome of the November U.S. elections and their impact on health care reform. “We believe that managed-care companies can show earnings growth over the next several years,” he says. Plus, “current state budget deficits, health care reform and the movement of management of dual-eligibles — those who qualify for Medicaid and Medicare — to the private sector will lead to the Medicaid industry more than doubling in size in less than four years,” he adds. Providers he currently favors include Virginia Beach, Virginia’s Amerigroup Corp.; Centene Corp. of St. Louis; and Tampa, Florida–based WellCare Health Plans. Raskin, 39, has a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania’s Lehigh University. He covered the sector for Morgan Stanley before joining Lehman Brothers in 1999; Barclays acquired the North American operations of Lehman Brothers Holdings in 2008.