This has been a favorite soundbite of Newt Gingrich for awhile. Now, for everyone who thinks Newt is a right-wing nut, we have Britain's chief medical officer to back him up, according to Reuters News.

Liam Donaldson, who also chairs the World Health Organization's World Alliance for Patient Safety, says that "Paradoxically, people are more frightened of air travel than they are of healthcare".

Yet statistics shows that while the risk of getting killed in a plane crash is 1 in 10,000,000 (over lifetime?), the risk of dying in a hospital in a developed country due to medical error is around one in 300.

Why is there such a disturbing lack of awareness and action?

Let us offer a theory. Plane crashes are gory, vivid and always make it to evening news. Legislators have the fire lit under them in no time and serious action happens fast. Medical errors go anonymous, unreported and disputed. There has been no easy way to turn private tragedies into the groundswell of outrage and change.

American health system needs real reform. There is no way to justify any more excuses. The time has come to adopt the principles of Open Medicine. Reform starts with sunshine.