Shares in local healthcare providers dropped early Tuesday after analysts cut their estimates on WellPoint Inc.

Shares in Woodland Hills-based Health Net Inc. dropped more than 13 percent Tuesday to $37.33 while shares in Long Beach-based Molina Health Care dropped 12 percent to $25.56. Earlier, Indianapolis-based WellPoint said it experienced unexpectedly high medical costs in the first two months of the year and reduced its 2008 profit forecast. That pointed out problems in the sector.

“We already knew we had some tough headwinds in ’08, what with political fears, investment portfolio suspicions, flu and falling state program funding,” Bear Stearns analyst John Rex said in a research report Tuesday. “Yesterday, however, WellPoint opened up what we consider to be the ultimate managed care earnings fear: rising medical costs.”