America's healthcare addiction

[Huffington Post, September 30, 2009] On occasion a patient arrives in the hospital so sick, in so many ways, that as a physician it's hard to know where to begin. Health care reform feels the same way -- so many things wrong, so complex and interrelated, that delving into it can produce a catatonic sense of helplessness. Detailed media reports begin to sound like Charlie Brown's teacher, an incomprehensible garble that's over our heads. Dr. Craig Bowron, a hospitalist at Allina's Abbott Northwestern Hospital, wrote this piece for the Huffington Post.