I think I understand your point. However, a car body shop can estimate how much it will cost to fix up my vehicle after a collision with a deer. Those professi

I think I understand your point. However, a car body shop can estimate how much it will cost to fix up my vehicle after a collision with a deer. Those professionals can provide an estimate based on the amount of effort and materials they believe are required. But they don't sit there and try and tell me how much my insurance will pay and how much I will have to pay out of pocket or if my insurance will cover any of the bill. Obviously in the situation above, time isn't of the essence as much as it might potentially be for a medical issue. Knowing the "hourly" rates and what treatments may be needed can allow a doctor to estimate the total cost range from a low end to the high end (might be $200 for simple diagnostic and we find nothing more to treat to $2,000,000 if as we progress done the rabbit trail we find evidence that leads up to more tests and it turns out to be cancer). Medical issues are like software development. You don't know what you don't know so God only knows how much effort (cost) will be involved. We can give estimates but the doctor and the software developer shouldn't be trying to figure out if the work involved is covered by external requirements (what and how much will medical insurance cover or does this development qualify for some tax credit or is considered sufficient to fall under some contractual constraint/requirement higher up). Should we expect software developers to know and understand tax laws? Should we expect doctors to know everyone's insurance plans and coverages?