The trouble with House

Americans have always been a slave to our myths. The last decade or so, the muddle-headed make-believe of the moment was Jack Bauer, of “24” fame.

This fictional character tortured his way to saving the world again and again, and in the process dumbed-down one of the most devastating moral crises in American history.

A nation that long stood against torture embraced it.

And we also embraced the kind of legalisms and doublespeak that every society uses when turning down a dark road.

“Enhanced interrogation” indeed.

These days, though, there’s an equally toxic fiction shaping and eroding our national debate: His name is House.

He’s the irascible, brilliant doctor (a sort of post-Modern Marcus Welby) on Fox who could out-diagnose any ten real physicians.

Why is House a problem?

Because he perpetuates the myth of the American super-specialist, the physician who saves lives through instinct, guts and rebel derring-do.

Americans love this idea. And so do doctors. That’s why more and more physicians are training for high-paid specialties and avoiding general practice.

But the truth is that the “doctor-as-superman-maverick” model is killing us.

Seriously.

Our nation has inferior health outcomes, higher rates of preventable disease and (shamefully) higher infant mortality rates than any other developed country in the world.

And still many of our leaders proudly boast that it’s the best, most virile, Viagra-swilling medical system going.

They tell us that any significant change would put sleazy government bureaucrats between us and our next live-saving session with Dr. House.

Sigh.

The fact is that more than 40 million of us never get to see any physician, not until we’re wheeled into the emergency room.

Under our current system, most Americans who lose their jobs also lose their health care — which means that that 40-million number is almost certainly an undercount.

What’s more, the medical-industrial complex that hides behind the House myth is bankrupting us, outpacing inflation year-after-year without providing a fraction of the basic health services that most of us need.

As private insurers dump their riskier clients, more people land on the balkanized Medicare, Medicaid and VA systems.

Taxpayers foot the bill for society’s neediest, while insurance conglomerates skim off the cream of wealthy (and healthy) people.

So here’s a message to Congress, which has taken up health care reform for the first time in a decade:

Sure, it’s fun to see House diagnose some cryptic parasite, or weird blood disease, all Sherlock-homes style. But what 99% of Americans need is a basic check-up.