When Clintoncare was finally slain in 1994, its deathblow may have come from a pair of fretful suburbanites — Harry and Louise.

Harry and Louise were a fictional couple who appeared in a yearlong string of television advertisements between 1993 and ’94, criticizing the proposed health care plan. They directed their message at buttoned-up white-flighters in suburbs across the country, putting an “aw shucks, honey” polish on their talk of government overreach, swelling bureaucracy, and restricted consumer freedom. Today, they’re remembered as an emblem of the skeptical American people who allegedly said no to health care reform.

But a year earlier, it seemed that national health insurance was an idea whose time had come. The demand for health care reform was wildly popular among voters — so much so that during the campaign season, even George Bush voiced his support for some version of a nationwide health plan. In August 1993, a full 81 percent of Americans regarded universal health insurance as either “absolutely essential” or “very important” for the country’s future.