Ah, I don't ever remember reading numbers for those so I can't comment on that (I'd be curious if anyone has a breakdown of surgery costs by elective, semi-elective, and emergency).

But even stuff like hip replacement kind of is on a sliding scale. How much choice do you have if the alternative is death? What about cognitive impairment? What about blindness? What about impaired range of motion? What about mild discomfort? What about pure annoyance?