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posted by martyb on Thursday March 08 2018, @12:47PM   Printer-friendly
from the actually...599-IS-prime dept.

Amazon launches a low-cost version of Prime for Medicaid recipients

Amazon announced this morning it will offer a low-cost version of its Prime membership program to qualifying recipients of Medicaid. The program will bring the cost of Prime down from the usual $10.99 per month to about half that, at $5.99 per month, while still offering the full range of Prime perks, including free, two-day shipping on millions of products, Prime Video, Prime Music, Prime Photos, Prime Reading, Prime Now, Audible Channels, and more.

The new program is an expansion on Amazon's discounted Prime service for customers on government assistance, launched in June 2017. For the same price of $5.99 per month, Amazon offers Prime memberships to any U.S. customer with a valid EBT card – the card that's used to disburse funds for assistance programs like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and Women, Infants, and Children Nutrition Program (WIC).

It could be a way to get users with certain health care requirements on board before Amazon launches its own health insurance company.

Also at USA Today.


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  • (Score: 2) by NewNic on Thursday March 08 2018, @06:33PM (10 children)

    by NewNic (6420) on Thursday March 08 2018, @06:33PM (#649612) Journal

    Makes you wonder why we don't just have government run healthcare for all here in the US.

    Because too much of the population have been brainwashed into thinking that "taxation is theft" and that the government is full of corruption and waste while private companies are entirely free of such issues.

    There was a teacher in West Virginia who was on strike for better pay, but didn't see the connection between low taxes and no money for education. It's those people who would prefer to pay 10x as much to a private company than pay for something through taxes.

    --
    lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 08 2018, @06:57PM (9 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 08 2018, @06:57PM (#649618)
    • If a private company is full of corruption/waste, at least I can choose to do whatever I can to avoid funding that company; I can use alternatives, I can choose to do without, or I can even band together with like minds and make an entirely new company with which to compete.

      You don't have that choice if the service provider is the government.

      That's the difference; that's what leads people to the word "theft".

    • Paying for the roads I use? OK. That's a just fee for usage/maintenance levied by the owner of the road.

      Bombing roads on the other side of the planet? Throwing people into cages for growing a plant in the "privacy" of their own homes? No. You'll have to steal my money if you want me to pay for that nonsense; you'll have to stick a gun and my face and tell me to pay up "or else". That's not a just fee; that's taxation.

      To borrow a phrase: Get it yet?

    • (Score: 2) by Bobs on Thursday March 08 2018, @07:16PM (1 child)

      by Bobs (1462) on Thursday March 08 2018, @07:16PM (#649632)

      You don't have that choice if the service provider is the government.

      Of course you can vote, and run for office, and publicize problems, etc to motivate elected officials to change.

      Versus the influence over a local monopoly or oligopoly, who owe their primary allegiance to maximizing a profit for their shareholders/owners, not you.

      Elections do make a difference: Just ask the people trying to get an abortion, living in Quatar or Iraq, or the people in the US working on selling and installing solar, or trying to build things with aluminum or steel.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 08 2018, @07:27PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 08 2018, @07:27PM (#649643)

        That's why it's "theft".

        Elections resulted in 100-year-old beer pubs being declared illegal and put out of business by men-with-guns.

        Are you really going to argue there's no difference between that method of organizing society and capitalism? It's really all just the same voluntary participation?

        Government is all about removing property rights against the will of the person who gathered those rights from his community; that's called theft.

    • (Score: 2) by NewNic on Thursday March 08 2018, @08:03PM (4 children)

      by NewNic (6420) on Thursday March 08 2018, @08:03PM (#649672) Journal

      If a private company is full of corruption/waste, at least I can choose to do whatever I can to avoid funding that company;

      No, [courthousenews.com] you can't. [npr.org] Unless you don't want that medicine at all?

      The simple fact is that the UK shows that the largely private medical "system" in the USA is vastly expensive. Whether this is due to incompetence, illegal behaviour or simple greed isn't important.

      But idiots like you would prefer to pay 10x what it should cost because, "hurr, durr, taxation is theft!".

      I have no problem agreeing with you that the amount of money spent on the military is far too large. The problem is that any tax cuts inevitably don't address that issue: instead, they affect benefits and services for ordinary people.

      As for locking up people for growing certain plants: in general the same people who don't want to pay taxes do support locking up people for what they grow in the privacy of their own homes. This is because they one thing they mostly have in common is an authoritarian attitude.

      --
      lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 08 2018, @08:12PM (3 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 08 2018, @08:12PM (#649681)

        It's like you see nothing but keywords that trigger your builtin copy/paste algorithm.

        • (Score: 2) by NewNic on Thursday March 08 2018, @08:41PM (2 children)

          by NewNic (6420) on Thursday March 08 2018, @08:41PM (#649702) Journal

          I see that you don't really want to engage in rational debate, but would prefer insults.

          Two can play at that game: Go fuck yourself, you childish moron.

          --
          lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
          • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 08 2018, @10:08PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 08 2018, @10:08PM (#649735)

            So. Yeah. "Go fuck yourself, you childish moron."

          • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 09 2018, @01:54AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 09 2018, @01:54AM (#649802)

            So. Yeah. "Go fuck yourself, you childish moron."

    • (Score: 2) by NewNic on Thursday March 08 2018, @08:12PM (1 child)

      by NewNic (6420) on Thursday March 08 2018, @08:12PM (#649682) Journal

      To add to my prior comments, I would bet that you actually voted for the party that wants ever increasing military spending and wants to lock people up for growing or taking cannabis.

      --
      lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 08 2018, @08:22PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 08 2018, @08:22PM (#649689)

        Should I send you a Bitcoin address to pay me for having lost?