House M.D.

I'm not a huge TV show connoisseur, but I won't deny my near pathological obsession with Dr. House.

As usual, after attending my last class this past Tuesday, I went upstairs to my room, opened my laptop, and proceeded to catch up on my missed episodes of House. Perpetually one week behind, I finally got around to watching the episode titled "5 to 9."

Now, from the very beginning, I knew something was up with this particular episode. Firstly, nobody mysteriously passed out in the first three minutes. Secondly, the entire introduction was concentrated on Cuddy and her new boy toy. At this point, I was extremely irked. For goodness sakes! The show is called House, not Cuddy.

Then, for the first time, House M.D. mentioned. . . Insurance companies.

Yes, insurance companies.

In fact, the entire episode was one large finger jab at those darned insurance companies.

In my personal experience, House M.D. never mentions money except for the following instances: 1. Cuddy becoming angry at House for wasting money on unnecessary testing 2. Cuddy becoming angry at House for breaking expensive equipment and 3. House making various bets with fellow co-workers.

Throughout the entire episode, Cuddy desperately tries to renew a contract with a heartless health insurance company, trying to get Princeton Plainboro the money it deserves. When she refuses to write a script for breast milk as cancer treatment for a clinic patient, he calls her bitch and pleads that his insurance company will only cover official prescriptions. She fights with a patient suing the hospital for his finger reattachment surgery because he cannot absorb the medical costs. She approaches an evil, douchebag health insurance company CEO during his luxury lunch to demand that he be less selfish and consider the patients instead of his shareholders for once. Dr. Chase who performed the finger reattachment surgery just expresses his wish to treat people, regardless of money.

As I said, one giant finger jab.

I'm not even going to try to pretend that I'm an expert on this whole healthcare crisis. The majority of my personal information stems from late night talking points and cursory scannings of the Washington Post and CNN. But, I know that when issues start pervading pop culture, the general public is more likely engage themselves. I admit I was mildly annoyed that my expected one hour break of mind-numbing programming turned into a in-your-face healthcare discussion. But, maybe that in itself is the problem. Maybe instead of wasting my time watching House be an attractive douchebag, I should take notice of the news and issues going around the world.