The real villain is the US healthcare system.
this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2025
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Exactly, any normal country doesn't have patients avoiding the hospital till the bitter end
If anything they specifically avoided the payment issue most of the time. Having a team of 5 specialists just working on a diagnosis for one patient at a time is extremely expensive and most people (even those with some kind of insurance) wouldn't be able to afford this. If anything they glossed over this entirely on the show.
It’s canon that House never handed in any paperwork. So maybe the patients never got charged?
There’s also the explanation that House occasionally saves wealthy people who then donate large sums to the hospital. That might offset the less affluent people.
Wasn't it a teaching school? Implied that it was cheaper or even somewhat affordable?
But yeah I think he was the villain of the show, in some fashion. His own worst enemy, at the very least
IIRC the clinic was free, but "teaching hospital" just means it's affiliated with a university med school. My local university hospital is definitely not cheap.
If you look at what he did to everyone who surrounded him, made Chase a paraplegic, bullied Wilson and Cuddy unrelentlessly, drove a car through Cuddy's living room, made Foreman a lesser doctor than he was destined to be, was part of the reason cutthroat bitch dies, not forgetting the misdiagnosis and the general attitude, yeah... He was the villain of the show
made Chase a paraplegic
Can you elaborate on this one?
This is what Wikipedia says as a plot summary, which doesn't really support your interpretation:
As Chase attempts to biopsy the patient's rash, the patient suffers another psychotic episode and stabs Chase with a scalpel, lacerating his heart. Chase survives surgery but is left paralyzed. House concludes that the paralysis is caused by a blood clot. Chase regains feeling when surgery is performed to remove the clot that is pressing on his spine, but he faces extensive physical therapy.
I've never seen an episode of house, but based on secondhand accounts, this is how I imagine an episode going:
House: hello, it's me, Dr house. I bet all of you that I can identify some crazy disease.
Unimportant Dr 1: You always do that
House: you are stupid and you should feel bad.
[Patient enters]
Patient: Doctor, I got bit by my dog.
House: You are stupid and should feel bad.
Unimportant Dr 1: House! You can say that to a patient!
House: Of course I can, it's true. [Starts spitting out slurs]
Unimportant Dr 2: I'm so sorry about Dr house, let me dress that wound.
House: No! The patient can't be treated!
Dr 2: why??
House: I'll never tell. 😏
[Patient faints]
House(to Dr 2): How could you be so stupid!?
[House grabs nearby syringes and begins injecting the patient]
[Patient wakes up]
House(to Dr 2): If you weren't so stupid, you would've gone to the patients house, kidnapped their dog and beheaded it. You see, this dog has a penchant for eating people with AIDS. So when the dog went to bite the patient, the patient got AIDS.
Patient: I have AIDS?
House: You are stupid and disgusting and you should feel bad.
Dr 1: I guess I owe you, House!
House: Give me the hospital's supply of morphine. I am a drug addict.
[Omnes exeunt]
If you had just put Vicodin instead of Morphine it would have been 100% accurate. Although he does take Morphine a couple times as well, so maybe that's just splitting hairs.