If you are a US resident and avoiding elective surgery because either you are not covered by insurance for it, or you fear that the insurance company won't pay and will leave you with the bills and possible bankruptcy, there is a better way. I recently completed major shoulder surgery in Guadalajara, Mexico and the quality of surgery, hospitals and post-op care was incredible - better than I have ever gotten in the USA and better than I had in Australia as well.
The private healthcare system in Mexico is affordable and ultra-high quality, resulting in a total cost to me of $10K for what was quoted at $126,000 in the USA. Most major airports connect with Guadalajara (GDL) and in my case it is a direct flight from Phoenix.
Complete details on this is here:
and the surgical process and results are here:
Also you can hear the entire details on my podcast which can be found here:
https://www.beunconstrained.com/podcast/details/episode-006-smart-healthcare
I hope this helps someone out there. Don't fall prey to the habits of thinking you have to get surgical procedures done locally just because you are more comfortable with that. My outcomes turned out great. But you do you, of course.