It looks like that figure doesn't include ambulance charges, which is the example I had in mind when I wrote that sentence. It also doesn't include decisions made during non-emergency surgery, which still might be necessary to stay alive even though you aren't in the emergency department. It of course doesn't include medication and followup care resulting from whatever unconscious decisions were made.
Regardless, I don't believe determining an exact percentage is relevant to this discussion. I'm not an economist, but every definition of "market" I can find says something like "a system where two parties can engage in a transaction". If there's a significant chance that one of the parties is unconscious and/or about to die, they are not engaging in a transaction any more than a mugging victim is. 5% is the chance of rolling a 1 on a d20, that is certainly significant.
> In economics, a market is a composition of systems, institutions, procedures, social relations or infrastructures whereby parties engage in exchange.
Yes they do. The words "engage in exchange" and "gather" are active verbs that obviously imply consciousness and consent.
I'll give you another example. The definition of "purchase" is "to obtain by paying money or its equivalent". If I steal money from you while you're asleep and leave a baseball card, is it fair to say you purchased the card? Why not? The definition doesn't say anything about consciousness or decision-making.
Generally dictionary definitions of human activities do not explicitly specify consciousness when it is obviously necessary.
It sounds you might have misunderstood what these terms mean.
People even in a coma 'engage' in multiple activities, such as consuming oxygen, producing carbon dioxide, etc...
And if they are in a hospital, they are taking up a bed and floor space that cannot be used for another patient, that needs to be actively heated/cooled/ventilated and so on.
Their body would literally be engaging with the hospital HVAC systems, especially with 'smart' sensors nowadays that react to room occupants.
Even in a purely financial sense, just because someone is physically incapable of opening their wallet or consenting to a transaction, doesn't mean they can't incur debts, or that other entities aren't acting on their behalf.
This is a problem, but it's not a major driver of health care expenses. Emergency care is around 5% of total spending: https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2022.01287