"Return flight JFK - Madrid: ~€750 Minimum income in Spain: €850/mo; 24 months amount to €20400. We'll assume that since a lot of people in Spain have to make do with this much, you will figure it out too. Learning Spanish is pretty straightforward, if you live in Spain for 2 years, you're practically guaranteed to pick up enough of it to get by, but let's say you spend €100 on a couple textbooks and a dictionary, just to get you started. Depending on where in the US you live, there might even be a solid chance that you already speak the language, after all it's the country's second language, with more speakers in the US than in Spain. You will also be spending a bit on visas and other bureaucratic requirements, let's call that another €200. Running with the bulls and getting trampled can be had for free. And then there's the hip replacement itself, at $7,371, or €7074. However, depending how you play it, you could actually take a minimum-wage job in Spain, and qualify for public healthcare, in which case the hip replacement might actually be covered. But let's just assume you have to pay for it out of pocket (which, frankly, is a pretty unusual thing in Europe, and typically only happens when people have to get treatement abroad and the insurance situation hasn't been figured out, or for a couple religious weirdos who object against having health insurance on moral grounds).

So let's ring you up; grand total: €28524, that's about $29700.

Not only does it fit comfortably into the US figure, you even have some $12,000 to spare"