Like it or not, Obamacare's juicing health stocks

Obamacare may not have played as great a role on Election Day as predicted, but President Obama's signature legislation has assumed a larger than anticipated role somewhere else this fall: health-sector stock performance. As third-quarter earnings reports roll in, the improvement in profits that hospitals and insurance companies attributed to the law three months ago as being maybe no more than a one-time pop are looking more durable. "People are coming around to the idea that maybe it's good,'' said Les Funtleyder, portfolio manager at New York hedge fund Esquared Asset Management and a former Wall Street health-care analyst. "Maybe it's not a flash in the pan but a theme going forward."