NEW YORK — This time, health care stocks bore the brunt of investors' wrath.

Health insurers and drug companies, some of the better performers on Wall Street lately, led the market lower Thursday after the White House proposed cutting payments to private insurance plans.

The Obama administration's $3.55 trillion budget plan for 2010 includes cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. Private insurance plans serving Medicare seniors would take the biggest hit.

As investors became aware of the impact that the budget, if enacted, could have on the companies, they turned against what had been one of the strongest industries . Market watchers had been looking to health care to help lead the market's recovery along with other recession-resistant industries like consumer staples.