On Wed, 05 Nov 2003 20:21:07 -0600, Big John
wrote:

Rosspilot

So what do you do?. Just add your cost of CC service to the posted
price? If someone comes in and pays cash then you make more profit?

That's right, more or less. Likely it comes to less of a markup than
that, meaning the cash customer is penalized in general. But the
markup gets applied evenly, all around.

Just as a corrolary, you'll see that with cash arrangments at the
doctor's office, too. His list price for your physical exam might be
$100. If you pay cash, you'll get a discount, say $5. Neat, eh?

The insurance companies he deals with will pay him $48. Medicare will
pay him $25.

Cash price for my daughter's amoxicillin at the pharmacist? $53 (no
kidding!) My copay was $15, the insurance company chipped in another
$9, which the pharmacist might see before the next Ice Age glacier
rolls over his store. Hmm. $53 cash price/ $24 insurance price?

So, yes, if someone pays cash you *do* make more profit. On that item.
Congratulations, cash buyer: you just paid the administrative costs of
everyone else being on an aggregate guaranteed payment program.

On a much *much* larger scale, you see that kind of thing in the
disparity of drug prices between the U.S. and Canada.

Rob

--
[You] don't make your kids P.C.-proof by keeping them
ignorant, you do it by helping them learn how to
educate themselves.

-- Orson Scott Card