We can see that Harry and Louise are back, that this will be an important issue in the election in 2000. It's been the third rail for the last several elections. Since the demise of the Clinton plan in 1993-94, nobody wanted to go near health care reform after that. But it's back on the front burner. And I think people will start to feel pain soon.
People are already annoyed as all get-out with their HMOs.
They don't like not being able to collect and having to pay out of pocket. They're not happy with their health care system. I think they've been afraid, so far, to go for any big changes, partly because of the propaganda about the government. I mean Harry and Louise was a very effective ad campaign during the Clinton Health Care Reform attempt, and they're back on television with the same dark hints that if government takes over, we're all going to go to hell in a bucket. But I don't think that's going to wash this time because doctors and patients both know that after enduring the tender mercies of the managed care industry, they might like a little bit of government regulation.