Harry and Louise and Health Care Reform: Romancing Public Opinion

Abstract

The question whether the "Harry and Louise" campaign ads, sponsored by the Health Insurance Association of America (HIAA) during the 1993-1994 health care reform debate, influenced public opinion has particular relevance today since interest groups are increasingly choosing commercial-style mass media campaigns to sway public opinion about health policy issues. Our study revisits the issue of the Harry and Louise campaign's influence on public opinion, comparing the ad campaign's messages to changes in opinion about health care reform over a twenty-six-month period in Oklahoma. Looking at the overall trends just prior to the introduction of the Harry and Louise campaign, public opinion was going in the "wrong" direction, from the HIAA perspective. Moreover, public opinion continued in the wrong direction until the mid-point of the campaign. However, in either the turning point of the campaign in terms of message content and tone or in the lag period following it, public opinion reversed on each health reform issue and returned to pre-campaign levels. It appears from these findings that the campaign captured public opinion when support for issues that were unfavorable to HIAA members was increasing and turned public opinion back to pre-campaign levels. The campaign may result in many more such marriages of political interest groups and commercial advertisers for the purpose of demobilizing public support for health policy initiatives that are unfavorable to special interests.

Playing Fair: Fairness Beliefs and Health Policy Preferences in the United States

“…Political elites successfully shifted public opinion against the health reform proposal Clinton introduced in 1993, the story goes, by making middle-class Americans anxious about losing their current health benefits (Goldsteen et al 2001;Jacobs 2001). Lessons taken from the mid-1990s seemed to shape the Obama administration's early efforts to persuade the public.…”

De Clinton à Obama : effets d’apprentissage et filtrage des alternatives

“…Enfin, l'expérience de la réforme Clinton a, une fois de plus, montré le pouvoir des groupes d'intérêt et leur capacité à financer et mener des campagnes contre les réformes qui ne leur conviennent pas (Quadagno, 2005). L'impact sur l'opinion publique de la campagne de spots télévisés autour des personnages « Harry and Louise », par exemple, a été perçu comme particulièrement important et est présenté comme l'un des principaux facteurs expliquant le retournement de l'opinion publique en 1994 (West et al, 1996 ;Goldsteen et al, 2001) 12 . Or, les groupes d'intérêt ont dénoncé le caractère trop interventionniste de la réforme Clinton.…”

Managed Care and Health Care Reform: Everything Old Is New Again

“…"If They Choose, We Lose" 31 -Conflict Between Full Choice and Universal Coverage Widely viewed as at least partly responsible for the demise of the Clinton health care proposal, the "Harry and Louise" advertising campaign of 1993 and 1994 featured a couple lamenting the loss of their private insurance coverage upon implementation of universal health care. 32 The ad campaign, sponsored by the Health Insurance Association of America (HIAA) at a reported cost of $14 million, 33 prompted a blistering attack from Hillary Rodham Clinton against industry "greed. "…”