'Harry And Louise' Advertisements Return, Advocate For Health Care Reform

Main Category: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Also Included In: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance;  Public Health
Article Date: 20 Aug 2008 - 11:00 PDT

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Several consumer advocacy and business groups on Tuesday at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., plan to announce a multimillion-dollar national television advertising campaign that will feature "Harry and Louise" and seek to promote health care in the presidential election, the Detroit Free Press reports. The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, the American Hospital Association, the Catholic Health Association, Families USA and the National Federation of Independent Business will sponsor the ads, which will air during Sunday morning news programs, as well as on national cable networks and Comedy Central, through the Democratic and Republican national conventions (Spangler, Detroit Free Press, 8/18). In addition, the ads will appear on the Web site harryandlouisereturn.com (Frates, The Politico, 8/18).

In 1994, health insurers launched an ad campaign that featured "Harry and Louise" to help defeat the health care plan of former President Bill Clinton, but the new campaign will ask the two major presidential candidates to make health care their top domestic priority. In the latest ads, Louise raises concerns about an individual who has cancer and lacks health insurance, and Harry says that "too many people are falling through the cracks." Louise adds, "Whoever the next president is, health care should be at the top of his agenda, bring everyone to the table and make it happen."

According to the AP/Kansas City Star, the new ad campaign "shows a shifting political landscape for overhauling the nation's health care system," with consumer advocacy and business groups "working together to stress that changes have to be made to deal with rising costs and the growing number of uninsured," but the "coalitions could prove fragile once candidates get beyond their campaign blueprints" (Freking, AP/Kansas City Star, 8/18).

Opinion Piece Looks at Candidates' Positions on Prescription Drug Reimportation
Both presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) have said that they support prescription drug reimportation, and that "illustrates how out of touch they are" because, "in the real world, no one is seeing it as much of a solution to anything anymore," Greg Scandlen, president of Consumers for Health Care Choices, writes in a Chicago Sun-Times opinion piece.

According to Scandlen, prescription drug reimportation programs established in Montgomery County, Md.; Illinois; and other states in large part have failed, in part because the changes in the exchange rate made "Canadian drugs ... a whole lot more expensive." In addition, he writes, all of the other concerns about prescription drug reimportation -- such as safety and liability issues, as well as the effect on the development of new medications -- remain.

He concludes, "Let's hope the Obama and McCain camps are listening" (Scandlen, Chicago Sun-Times, 8/19).

Broadcast Coverage
NPR's "Morning Edition" on Tuesday examined how, although Medicare is typically a big issue in presidential campaigns, the major presidential candidates are playing down the issue this year. Both candidates argue that Medicare should be put on "firmer fiscal footing," according to NPR (Rovner, "Morning Edition," NPR, 8/19).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

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