He's such an ass. I love it.

"Michael Moore was right"? I can't tell if the character's being sarcastic or not.

That British Hugh Laurie does a pretty good American accent. But I don't understand, what do people find so sexy and hot about this scruffy rat?

Michael Moore's movie wasn't about people without health insurance. It was about how bad you get treated when you do have health insurance in the US.

House is indeed a pretty good character. I'm not sure why people love medical dramas (or "dramedies") on TV so much, though. I generally don't like doctors, and TV shows about them makes them seem even more self-centered and egomaniacal than I normally believe them to be. That goes for the glamourous medical shows like ER as well as Laurie's misanthrope MD.

"Who here doesn't have any health insurance?"

I used to have (in Canada). Now that I'm in the States married and working, I don't.

Ugh, what a terrible attempt at introducing politics into drama. I guess it is on Fox, though.

He said, "Who here doesn't have health insurance?".

Back in the real world, people without health insurance wouldn't even be in the emergency room - I was told by a friend who works as an E.R. doctor in Chicago that when you enter E.R. you have to either hand over a medical insurance card or a credit card, otherwise you're told to go elsewhere (in this case County Hospital, 15 minutes away).

I have never understood how any doctor can work within such a system and square it with their conscience and whatever form of hippocratic oath they have taken.

Dramas should either stay out of politics altogether or do it with intellectual honestly.

Michael Moore's movie wasn't about people without health insurance. It was about how bad you get treated when you do have health insurance in the US.

That's what you get when you have writers on strike...

I generally don't like doctors, and TV shows about them makes them seem even more self-centered and egomaniacal than I normally believe them to be.

Yes, because a group of people who spend their entire working lives helping others, and in a majority of the world are over-worked and under-paid must be 'self-centred and egomaniacal'.

Back in the real world, people without health insurance wouldn't even be in the emergency room - I was told by a friend who works as an E.R. doctor in Chicago that when you enter E.R. you have to either hand over a medical insurance card or a credit card, otherwise you're told to go elsewhere (in this case County Hospital, 15 minutes away).

I have never understood how any doctor can work within such a system and square it with their conscience and whatever form of hippocratic oath they have taken.

Dramas should either stay out of politics altogether or do it with intellectual honestly.

This scene doesn't take place in an ER, though, it takes place in the free clinic of a teaching hospital. I find that "House" very rarely tries to interject politics into its drama. House is a very apolitical character, beset with a moral and value system all of his own. Taken out of context, it appears as though House is advocating for one thing or another. In reality, he's just trying to piss off his boss and make busy work for her.

So the question is: why do people find the question of health- insurance to be "political", and therefore something that should not be mentioned in polite company.

..Sorry. Too long sentences again.

So the question is: why do people find the question of health- insurance to be "political"