SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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: 2) by VLM on Thursday March 08 2018, @03:18PM (5 children)
I have a beyond elderly Uncle-in-law on medicaid in assisted living, no particular reason, just old in many ways, anyway, your argument seems to be that its bad that Amazon will accept less money in exchange for one of his prime-less nephews visiting him more often. I mean, you clearly think there's a problem so expand on it?
Taking your side of the argument to see if I understand it, I'll concede the point that being nearly immobile, he's in more of a monopoly situation than a Prime subscriber like myself, because I can drive to Walgreens in about five minutes anytime I want, but for someone with my UiL's mobility going to the store would be like me entering a marathon, so they're probably going to abuse the monopoly position into ridiculous higher prices. Good luck getting me to pay $15 for a hundred advil pills, but my UiL being immobile would have to cough up the cash or do without.
Ironically that argument sounds like an amazon commercial in that the best way, maybe the only way, to make sure my UiL isn't screwed over would be for me to continue to do business with amazon while holding their feet to the fire WRT prices. Go ahead Amazon, make my day, try to charge $15 for a hundred advil, I'll get pissed off enough to drive to walgreens and buy two bottles, one for me and one for my UiL... Hell I'll make walgreens even more profit and buy him two bottles, old people love to hoard, its not a problem.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday March 08 2018, @03:59PM
I KNOW you are quite literate. But, man, that first sentence? There's nothing funny about what you're saying, but you appear to be a little worked up. :^)
Alright - on topic. I'm with you. Becoming a Prime member may well make some people captive audiences. Personally, I've resisted the occasional urge to join.
ICE is having a Pretti Good season.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Thursday March 08 2018, @04:57PM (3 children)
I've done the "prime trial" twice now, and the things it did for me were:
1) got things to my door a few days faster, sometimes.
2) access to "Prime Pantry" and their movie service
3) enticed me to spend more money at Amazon, which we all know is the real purpose of Prime - regardless of price.
>123 $5.99 per month, from people who already don't have enough money to make ends meet, just so they can access some basically premium services that nobody really needs? That's my point. I would approve if it were free, but this is like the old George Carlin joke about overdraft charges at the bank: "charging you more of what they already know you don't have enough of..."
🌻🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 08 2018, @07:18PM (2 children)
Prime used to be just a bit faster for me. Now, Amazon holds everything I order for a week before shipping and then ships it in a day. I'm assuming economies of scale and efficiency are the reasons behind this, but I fucking hate Amazon for it and go out of my way and pay higher prices just to spend my money elsewhere.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Friday March 09 2018, @03:30PM
I admit I've noticed the std deviation creep up over the years, in the old days, "two day shipping" meant "two days" but now it seems to mean "sometimes free same day if over $25, sometimes next week, but it averages out to two days".
To some extent it doesn't matter, if I need it right now, like we're out of toilet paper, then I can't Amazon, but if I merely need it soon, then a few days here, a few days there, it doesn't matter.
What they have not waffled and redefined yet is it remains true its like an insurance policy that you'll never pay UPS or whomever more than $X per year, ever. I'd drop it like a hot potatoe if they started randomly charging for prime or for shipping based on their dice rolling.
(Score: 2) by goodie on Friday March 09 2018, @03:45PM
Well, that's been my experience as well. I'm pretty sure that their argument is "fuck you, get Prime or wait like back in 1995". Personally, I don't care, if I really need something, I go to a store. And in 99.99% of the cases, I don't need it that bad, that soon. My wife signed up for Prime and loves it but I haven't yet. I still order from my account and she always wonders how I can live without Prime :D. The one advantage for the target population is that they can have stuff without a minimum purchase amount to be eligible for free shipping. If you really want to be nice, just give those people free shipping without Prime, that'll be a real nice move.
I like having the choice of going somewhere else. One day, when all we have left is Amazon, people will be like "WTF, Amazon are a mean company that takes advantage of its monopoly!". But the thing is that if that ever happens, it will be because we will have handed them the keys. Short-term, pure price-driven decisions are not usually a good thing for the long term. This is a moot point for those who cannot afford to pay more, but for those who can, I think it's worth considering.
On the other hand, I don't like getting shafted when I go to a store. So sometimes, I do buy from Amazon because it is literally 50% cheaper. Thankfully, Amazon now behaves more like a regular store: sometimes you'll see that some items are actually a lot more expensive on Amazon than in the store so that helps too :). They just count on the fact that you buy one cheaper you won't mind one for a lot more.