[civilized]

I don't buy that, because of the unpredictability of the worst case, we can't ever be told how much anything costs, no matter how routine.

[Spivak]

Because people will be mad if their bill is significantly north of what they were quoted.

And also because providers have genuinely zero idea what insurance will pay for and insurance has zero idea what a provider is going to bill for. You can get basically exact costs for specific codes but good luck assuming they’ll bill it that way.