Your first example is funny, considering that the hospital where my son was delivered sent us a letter about a month before his due date with an estimate of the

Your first example is funny, considering that the hospital where my son was delivered sent us a letter about a month before his due date with an estimate of the cost for both normal delivery and caesarean. Of course it didn't cover every possible contingency... That's what an "estimate" means by definition. But that doesn't mean that it's impossible or even unreasonable to provide a baseline price, along with some of the more common events that can modify that price.