Insurance is running the show, but technology has advanced so much in the last decade. My lung cancer and breast cancer surgeries were both in and out the same day. Dr. Say said if I'd had the lung cancer even 4 years eariler, I'd be in ICU for three days then hospital another 3 or 4.
Amazing times we live in.
And people can and do get sick picking up the virulent germs in hospital. Mersa comes to mind.