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Chat transcript: Translating the Supreme Court's ruling on health care

On Thursday June 28, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on the constitutionality of President Obama's health care initiative, the Affordable Care Act. Whichever way the ruling goes, our expert, Robert I. Field, Ph.D., J.D., M.P.H., will be here to answer your questions.

In a major win for the White House, the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision upheld President Obama's overhaul of the nation's health care system.

The court said that a central feature of the plan, that individual Americans purchase insurance or be subject to a penalty levied by the IRS, was constitutional. It also upheld a provision greatly expanding Medicaid, the health care program for the poor jointly financed by the state and federal governments.

What does all this mean for you? Our expert, Robert I. Field, Ph.D., J.D., M.P.H.,answered reader's questions in a live chat.

Field is an expert on health law, health policy and public health. He holds a joint appointment as professor of law at the Earle Mack School of Law and professor of health management and policy at the School of Public Health at Drexel University. He is also a senior fellow of the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania and a lecturer in health care management at the Wharton School.

He has been writing regularly for our Check Up blog about attempts at health reform for the last several months.

You can read the transcript from the chat below.

To check out more Check Up items go to www.philly.com/checkup