> Auto repair.

I walk in and sign a form that states I agree to pay diagnosis fee not to exceed ~$120. Diagnosis happens, I get an estimate of the work required to execute the repair. I can't recall a time when I paid anything other than precisely the amount of the quote offered ahead of time. Maybe it happens but it's vanishingly rare.

Best part is that the repair center will triage and rank the problems and often offer more than one treatment which will vary on endurance/cost/etc. Would that medicine could offer the same!

But can you then pick up your phone and do a quick price comparison with nearby shops without taking your car to each one and potentially paying a diagnosis fee at each one?

Yes.

How if they don't publishing pricing information?

At least in auto repair you have a pretty good idea how much repair is going to cost you, and when you've been in a major wreck you get one bill that you can turn in to your insurance, not ten from the tow truck, the body shop, the paint shop, the several master mechanics &c, and none of them is out of network for insurance purposes.

And the bill is usually honest. The pregnancy test for males isn't a joke, it really happened to a physician colleague of mine.

Terrible examples. Any kind of repair gives you a quote before work starts. If you don't like it you can take it someplace else. Does the quote always match reality? No, but it give you an idea.

In most healthcare scenarios of consequence you have no such choice.

But it's not an order of magnitude difference (or more).