>I mean, this basically is my experience with contractors, auto mechanics and most other professions where there's a lot of information asymmetry between consum

>I mean, this basically is my experience with contractors, auto mechanics and most other professions where there's a lot of information asymmetry between consumers and providers. The unique feature of the medical care system that's different from most other professions is that there's multi-way asymmetry. An auto mechanic generally does have some rough idea of how much a given repair costs (inclusive of labor and materials) or at least can easily inform him/herself. It's a basic two-party information asymmetry where the professional making the decision has more information than most consumers. In medicine, physicians often have no idea themselves what the total cost of treatment will be, and there are various structural and economic factors that discourage or make it very difficult for physicians to find this information. This is a very different type of information asymmetry, where both the providers and the consumers lack information.