[wpietri]

Responding to some random sentence in the middle of a discussion as if you actually have something relevant to say is annoying, and a big waste of other people's time. If you want to go off on a tangent, say so. Then nobody has to try to figure out what you're on about.

Predicting costs is not an inherent benefit. That only is useful if somebody will change a decision based on the prediction. Otherwise, it's wasted effort. My mom was on Medicare throughout her cancer treatment, and I promise you: not knowing the costs was perfectly fine.

In fact, not knowing was better. The cognitive load of a major illness is huge. Not knowing is also better for most medical personnel. Their goal should be to maximize patient outcomes. Asking them to juggle some sort of cost-benefit tradeoff in the middle of treatment adds an insane and impossible burden.

Also, you quite literally did say "problem solved" after proposing SWAG estimation as a solution to a problem. Maybe you wanted me to have some other understanding, but I have no idea what it would be. And, since you admit you are off on some sort of tangent, I don't really care.