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The Great Mistake of Harry and Louise PDF Print E-mail
Written by Daniel Shin   
Sunday, 29 May 2005 18:00
Many politicians in Washington D.C. are battling to fight for better affordable healthcare for the average Americans. If the extreme conservatives on the right did not block President Clinton’s health care plan, America would not be facing this grim issue today.

I was actually doing my A.P. (Advanced Placement) American homework, and I was reading the era between the 1990s and 2000. President Clinton presented his solution to the increasing health care cost in 1993. The media and the people loved his health care plan initially, because it offered a solution to the growing problem, but the conservative right had to start a controversy over the plan. The Republicans and the representatives of small businesses attacked the plan and told the public that the plan would not allow citizens to choose their own doctors.

The opposition group spent nearly $60 million to fight Clinton’s health care plan. All that money could have been invested into the already crippled health care system, but the opposition elite reserved all that money to build a counter attack force against our moderate President. The attack was a brilliant tactic, and it turned the public opinion around. The $10 million television advertisement by the Health Insurance Association of America proved to be the most effective way of counterpropaganda. The advertisement featured Harry and Louise, a middle class couple, who were concerned about the Clinton’s Health Care plan. The counterpropaganda worked as the public gave only 39% approval ratings on the health care proposal. The only task left to the Republicans in the Capital Hill is to filibuster.

The Republicans and the right-wing conservatives won the battle, but the result left American loosing the war on health care today. Granted, President Clinton’s ambitious health care plan was too liberal in the sense that it over hauled the entire health care system, but such a liberal solution can be compared to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. The Republicans filibustered Clinton’s Health Care plan without offering an alternative health care plan. Americans are left to pay high priced prescription drugs as the result of the political battle in 1994.