This health care debate will be tweeted

With 400,000 health reform-related tweets over the course 24 hours, last Tuesday —the second day of Supreme Court oral arguments — was the highest-volume day for the health care conversation on Twitter since the law passed. Via Twitter’s government and politics team.

This isn’t exactly shocking: The Supreme Court’s oral arguments on the Affordable Care Act pretty much dominated the news last week. Tuesday was the day justices heard arguments on the most crucial issue: Is the requirement purchase of insurance constitutional?

What is a bit of a surprise though, is the spike in health care conversation on Aug. 12, 2011. That would be the day that Health and Human Services rolled out its 37-page “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; Exchange Functions in the Individual Market: Eligibility Determinations; Exchange Standards for Employers; Proposed Rule.”

The regulation did matter a lot to states trying to figure out how, exactly, to set up a new insurance marketplace. But as the title suggests, the August rules weren’t exactly a gripping read —and definitely not easily condensed into 140-characters. Nevertheless, it did seem to get some Twitter traction. The wonks are, apparently, getting social.