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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.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 08 2018, @07:58PM (2 children)
Don't stick a gun in my face and try to make me do something about it—especially when your solutions are so stupid, anyway.
The most robust solutions come out of agreement, not coercion; civilized society is an act of individual will, not mandate.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday March 08 2018, @08:35PM (1 child)
Don't stick a gun in my face and try to make me do something about it
Without a monopoly on violence what's to stop me from sticking an actual gun in your face to pay my medical bills?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 08 2018, @09:17PM
My own prevention, and my own retaliation.
Your government police show up after the act, not during the act. And, as a violently imposed monopoly, there's not much incentive to do a good job, anyway.
There's an incentive to protect oneself, or to band together with like minds to protect each other. Neither is your "government" solution sufficient, nor is it necessary.