Professor Robert Field identified pharmaceutical companies and other players in the health care industry as staunch supporters of controversial federal health reforms during a panel hosted by the Philadelphia Inquirer and WTFX Fox29 on Dec. 14.

Field joined a panel of experts in discussing progress toward implementing the Affordable Care Act, which has sparked bitter controversy since it was enacted in 2010.

Most states have taken significant steps toward implementing components of the law, which faces a legal challenge that will go before the U.S. Supreme Court next year.

Hospitals and other health providers are “not going to be very happy if this gets repealed,” Field said, citing commercial opportunities the reforms provide for them.

Field was quoted in a Dec. 15 article the Inquirer published on the forum, which was sponsored by the Association of Health Care Journalists, the Alliance for Health Reform and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.