Promise of orderly Obamacare repeal sends hospital stocks rising

Mike Pence told Republicans that Trump, on his first day in office, plans to take action on Obamacare through executive orders aimed at making sure the insurance marketplace isn’t disrupted by a repeal. (Photo: iStock)

At the end of a day when incoming and outgoing presidents tussled over the fate of U.S. health care, it was the words of Vice President-elect Mike Pence that seemed to matter most to anxious investors.

Pence, in a visit to Congress, sought to ease concerns that a repeal of Obamacare would be done so abruptly that it leaves millions of Americans without insurance and throws health-care companies into chaos across the country. He told reporters that he was talking with Republican leaders to coordinate “both a legislative and executive action agenda to ensure that an orderly and smooth transition to market-based health care system is achieved.”