I have two friends/acquaintances who have recently undergone the...

I have two friends/acquaintances who have recently undergone the SAVR procedure - one on the Sunshine Coast and one in Brisbane. Both are doing well and recovering at the present time. I was interested to know if they had been offered the opportunity for a TAVR procedure. The responses were interesting. Both were aware of it but chose SAVR on the basis of cost. Both have private health insurance. One indicated that he had been advised that he would be out of pocket by approx. an additional $40k for TAVR and the other was advised that it would be approx. $25k extra. Additionally one was advised that the surgeon favored SAVR because if they found any other issues they could address them at the same time as the valve replacement. It does raise a few questions - the one which immediately came to my mind was - how many surgeons are competent to provide the TAVR procedure and what do the others need to do to upgrade their skills and how many will "stick to their knitting" and continue to do what they have always done?