A Toronto TV critic raises a quite interesting point: Do some Americans oppose health care reform because they are afraid of losing access to the fantasy health care systems they see in TV medical dramas? As follows:
Today, I put it to you that a central problem in the attempt by President Barack Obama to sell his health-care reform plan to Americans is the proliferation of medical dramas on U.S. network TV. All those medical shows are reassuring fantasies about the brilliance of the U.S. system.
Man, oh man, but American viewers love their hospital shows. Every year, it seems, ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox venture back into the hospital/doctor/nurse genre because, well, these medical shows are darn popular. There is always room for a new hit about hospital high jinks.
I also put it to you that most American TV viewers believe that these glossy medical shows serve as advertisements for their medical system. They don't see them as soap operas or as absurd confections designed to titillate. They actually believe them. They need to believe them. In facing possible change, many Americans are, metaphorically speaking, terrified that their medical system will change from the glossy sexiness of ER and Grey's Anatomy to the drab reality of such British shows as Casualty and Doc Martin .http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/more-hospital-high-jinks-and-handsome-fellas/article1297503/Huh. He may have a point.