Hurtling through the upper reaches of the atmosphere at 550 mph for 12 or more hours seems pretty darn complex, especially when 3.3 Billion people (equal to 44% of the world’s population) do it every year with an incredible safety record. It’s often easy to hate the airline industry, but if you hypothetically apply the management of the US heathcare industry (serving 10% of the number of people) to air travel, Ryanair, Spirit, Jetblue, and Frontier rise to unimaginable heights of warm customer service, easy and efficient travel, and customer safety.

But Jonathan Rauch, writing for the National Journal, turns things on their head and attempt to fly from Washington DC to Eugene OR, living la vida loca, US healthcare style!