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  • The Week on the Hill

They're back -- and fighting for an overhaul of the nation's health care system. Starting this weekend, Americans can rejoin the famous and influential "Harry and Louise" at their kitchen table, this time as part of a $4 million ad campaign warning that the status quo is untenable.

"Having Harry and Louise speaking positively about the need for health reform is probably the best symbol [of] how different the debate is this time," said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA. The consumer group is co-sponsoring the ads with the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. Needless to say, the two organizations don't always see eye-to-eye.

Pollack, however, is a pro at bringing together strange bedfellows to promote changes in health care policy. Families USA and PhRMA reached agreement last spring on expanding Medicaid eligibility nationally to those earning up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level (or about $29,000 for a family of four), providing sliding-scale subsidies for people just above that cutoff, and limiting the amount of money that patients with insurance must pay out of pocket for health care.

"We have looked for opportunities to do things together to promote affordability for folks," Pollack said. Last summer, during the Democratic and Republican national conventions, Families USA, the National Federation of Independent Business, the American Hospital Association, the Catholic Health Association, and the Cancer Action Network sponsored Harry and Louise ads urging the presidential nominees to put health care reform high on their agendas.

The middle-class "couple" first hit the airwaves in September 1993, when details of President Clinton's health package began to leak out of the White House. The Health Insurance Association of America, which later merged with another insurance group to become America's Health Insurance Plans, funded the ads; the ads have been widely credited with delivering a fatal blow to the Clinton reform effort.

"We need good coverage people can afford ... even if they have a pre-existing condition." --new Harry and Louise ad

The actors portraying Harry and Louise in the series of 14 ads embraced the idea of reform, at least in theory, but they were upset by the complexity of the Clinton approach and worried that it might jeopardize their own health insurance. Again and again, the couple concluded, "There's got to be a better way."

Louise Caire Clark (yes, Louise is the actress's real name), says that the original ads have been misunderstood. She says she's bothered that they were often portrayed as being against health care reform.

Those ads, she insists, "did not kill" the Clinton health plan but simply raised questions about it. "In the original ads, Louise always said we needed health reform," Clark said this week between takes in the Potomac, Md., kitchen where the Goddard Claussen firm was producing the new ads. The faux couple looked comfortable in the suburban home. (The real middle-class family had cleared out for the day.)

As Louise and her "husband" -- actually Harry Johnson -- sat around the kitchen table, they pounded the message that Americans should not abandon health reform this time. "Looks like we may finally get health care reform," Harry says. "It's about time," Louise responds. She complains about the cost of health insurance: "We need good coverage people can afford, coverage they can get --" Harry, finishing her sentence, says, "-- even if they have a pre-existing condition." Louise wraps up the conversation by urging a "little more cooperation and a little less politics, and we can get the job done this time."

Families USA and PhRMA timed the ads to air just as Congress nears key floor action. Harry and Louise will appear for several weeks on cable and broadcast networks.

Producer Ben Goddard, partner and executive creative director of Goddard Claussen, has come away with more than money from the ads. After casting the actors in the 1993 ads and spending about a year making the commercials, Goddard married Louise.

According to Goddard, the insurance association offered in 1993 to turn Harry and Louise into cheerleaders for the Clinton proposal. "There were basically three things the health insurers wanted removed from the plan, and we would have put out Harry and Louise ads in support of the plan," he said in 2007. The White House refused to yield, Goddard said, and Harry and Louise continued to complain.

Looking back, Goddard said then that the demise of "Hillarycare" was "one of the great missed opportunities."

Harry and Louise have appeared in health care ads several times since their debut, and they even branched out to support stem-cell research.

"I have believed in everything we have done from the beginning," Clark said. "I am thrilled to be here.... Louise has always said we need health reform."