POTUS TV: Paging Dr. Obama

The President takes to the air to sell his health-care fix, but it's TV's med shows that really feel our pain

Illustration by Francisco Caceres for TIME

Illustration of Nurse Jackie.

On June 24, ABC debuted a controversial new medical drama: Barack Obama, M.D. Actually titled Questions for the President: Prescription for America, the town-hall forum sat the POTUS down to field questions about his plans to overhaul the health-care system. Before it aired, Republicans criticized it as an infomercial that would allow Obama to sell his platform to a vast prime-time audience.

That critique turned out to be off on two counts. The questions--from an audience including a former Bush Medicare official and the CEO of Aetna--focused mostly on the worries of the already insured about what would happen to their...

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