Amazon Launches a Low-Cost Version of Prime For Medicaid Recipients (techcrunch.com) 88
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: 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 $12.99 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). Now that same benefit is arriving for recipients of Medicaid, the public assistance program providing medical coverage to low-income Americans. To qualify for the discount, customers must have a valid EBT or Medicaid card, the retailer says.
Re: (Score:2)
And I thought my gut instinct to the article was right leaning.
That poor people make poor money choices, so giving medicaid patients (given to struggling people) they will spend more on things that do not have a long term value, trinkets that will give an immediate satisfaction, vs long term pleasure. Is this a gross stereotype? Yes, yes it is. However it is a normal trend that could be taken advantage of. Because on the more altruistic view of this. These people may not be able to have ready transport to
Re: (Score:1)
>implying people make good decisions
People on government assistance are there precisely because they can't make good decisions. McDonald's immediate gratification or reasonably-priced Whole Foods (HA!) for better meals you have to cook?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
That poor people make poor money choices, so giving medicaid patients (given to struggling people) they will spend more on things that do not have a long term value, trinkets that will give an immediate satisfaction, vs long term pleasure. Is this a gross stereotype? Yes, yes it is.
Actually, no it is not. $100 on an EBT card will get you $50-$60 cash on the black market . . . which you can spend on whatever you want.
The mere existence of this thriving market indicates . . . well . . . that lots of folks are doing it.
A more interesting question . . . is if Amazon permits or assists in such EBT card hanky-panky. Can you spend money from your EBT card, that is meant for diapers, to pay for tech junk . . . ?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Actual scheme I've encountered in real life:
1. Get "government cheese" (any kind of food from government assistance).
2. Feed government cheese to white rats.
3. Sell white rats to labs.
4. Profit!
Re: (Score:3)
Now, will their UI make it super easy(or just default to) auto-apply EBT to eligible items in the cart and use a presentation of the result very simil
Re: (Score:3)
So I work hard and am not on public assistance, and Amazon wants to punish me with higher prices for that?
I call bullshit
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Hmm...I've had pretty much nothing but GREAT experiences with Amazon.
I find what I want, it gets shipped to me in 2 days and prices are usually better than I find locally.
And even with amazon charging sales tax....if you find a 3rd party on Amazon selling it, you usually get same shipping and no charge of sales tax which is nice.
Before Amazon started
Re: (Score:3)
I agree that welfare is sort of unfair, what with both requiring you to have low income and refusing to provide any benefit until you have run down your liquid assets (you have to burn through your life's savings first), while also having you pay taxes in.
As such, I have developed a new program [google.com] which we can implement without raising taxes. This program stabilizes Social Security (permanently), creates a new baseline for minimum wage ($9.75 in 2024, which compounds with the Dividend benefit to equate to
Re:Embrace, Extend, Extinguish (Score:5, Insightful)
It's an economic commonplace that price discrimination is in the seller's interest if they can accurately assess the willingness to pay and demand elasticity of their various customers. Doing so perfectly is generally impossible; but more and less granular attempts market segmentation are ubiquitous.
Here, Amazon has a very convenient market segmentation signal neatly implemented for them: a collection of poor customers, presumably less likely to purchase Prime at full price, with eligibility standards and enforcement provided by the state or the feds; and (at least in the case of WIC EBT, not sure about medicaid) a purchasing mechanism built in that is quite similar to other payment cards in terms of processing. What's not to like, from Amazon's perspective?
Should we establish a Department of Virtuous Labor to enact regulations to prevent market actors from doing things, even voluntarily and in their economic interests, that might result in lower prices for filthy poors, to avoid this moral outrage?
Re: (Score:1)
Fuck you too
Re: Embrace, Extend, Extinguish (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
So I work hard and am not on public assistance, and Amazon wants to punish me with higher prices for that?
I call bullshit
Screw Amazon. Walmart.com has 2 day free shipping /w ZERO membership dues.
Re: (Score:2)
Most of the time they are pretty fast with the shipping like that
We've had a few times where Walmart took a week longer than that on shipping
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah those poor ill people get all the breaks. What is this shit?
Re: (Score:3)
So you're buying a hospital visit for the flu, would you like to add an additional warranty for $10?
Re: (Score:2)
Although, this time, it's being used for good!
Amazon is looking to get into the health-care business, right? So, they're trying to build a user-base among those who most struggle with health care: The old and poor. Amazon is embracing the Medicaid program within its current domain of expertise; next, Amazon will extend its expertise to include health care management; then, Amazon will work with governments to extinguish the public program, and we can be free once and for all from the ineptitude of governmental control.
From the description, it looks like Amazon might have the same idea for the other aspects of the welfare state. Why bother challenging the governmental programs when you can just infiltrate and then subsume them? Bezos is a genius.
I think what you meant to say is that Amazon is working on a medical support and delivery program, and is even making money collecting information on future clients who will be able to pay for medical services via their Medicaid EBT information. A win-win for Amazon.
Re: (Score:3)
So, they're trying to build a user-base among those who most struggle with health care: The old and poor.
They offer the discount for SNAP and medicaid folks, not for seniors. So your premise is flawed. Where is my old people discount?
More goodies for slackers. (Score:1)
âoeAnyone with an entire cardâ is way more than Medicaid. Itâ(TM)s also the bums that donâ(TM)t work because they canâ(TM)t find a job they âoelikeâ.
The folks that use the entire for food and still have cash for lotto tickets and cigarettes. Great move amazon. Punish the working class by giving special treatment to the bum class.
Re: (Score:2)
At least we can type coherently.
At any rate, Amazon is offering the discount because it makes business sense. Poor people don't order 10 packages a month (I probably make 4 orders a year), so the free shipping costs Amazon a lot less than it does with a wealthy customer.
Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)
Discrimination (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3)
It's basically a case of "you don't get a discount because you're not poor enough and live in the wrong country"
You have the NHS. Why don't you just shut your whine-hole?
Re:Discrimination (Score:4, Interesting)
It's simply "here's a group of people we can be sure aren't willing to pay our full price, so we'll offer them a lower price and hope some buy." They don't have to offer the lower price to everyone who can't afford their full price, because this isn't a charity, it's business strategy.
Re: (Score:3)
Actually it's called price discrimination [wikipedia.org] and is an ages-old pricing strategy.
Re: (Score:2)
All this is, is discrimination dressed up as assistance.What if i live in the UK and am on benefits. Do i get a discount? What if i have a delibitating terminal disease? How about if i'm a paraplegic? It's basically a case of "you don't get a discount because you're not poor enough and live in the wrong country"
And you're also being discriminated against because you don't live in that one place whedre Amazon is running a checkout-free test store.
Re: (Score:2)
Thanks Amazon (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
It's a savings of $84, that piss stream had a few drops left, you just forgot to shake.
Re: (Score:2)
Poor people, people on medicaid, elect to pay monthly as it's cheaper in the short run and that is the biggest motivator.
Re: (Score:3)
Poor people, people on medicaid, elect to pay monthly as it's cheaper in the short run and that is the biggest motivator.
Right. One of the main reasons people are "poor" in the US is that they make bad money choices like this.
Re: (Score:1)
Poor people actually are pretty good at getting by on budgets even I can't manage. Bear in mind I make $77k and I only spend 1/3 of it. My car broke and I bought a motorcycle (and then a $12k Volt), so I've been diverting a lot to cleaning up my finances while running a Congressional campaign out of pocket, and I've still stacked up $5,000 in my bank accounts, paid off a $5,000 credit card, and started knocking down another credit card, before my tax refunds landed.
I actually have enough cash on hand t
Re: (Score:2)
None of these contribute to the community beyond a "look at us", and they cost big in taxes.
I think it's because the local government is mostly stacked with developer types. The bill is going to come due in
Re: (Score:2)
You have assumed availability of $99 up front.
You would have to defer the monthly price for 8 months to accumulate enough for the yearly price BUT you also have to account for any additional cost from any substitutes for Prime used in the meantime.If the total price for substitutes costs you more than 3.5 times the monthly price you will never accumulate the lump sum.
If you are not using any substitutes, then there's no reason to get yearly or monthly Prime at all.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
"better off paying interest on a credit card"
You have assumed there is a credit card.
Re: (Score:2)
I am not following your math?
12.99*12 = 155.88
5.99*12 = 71.88
155.88-71.88 = 84
Then there are saving in its services such as free shipping. Saving having to travel by car (Which is expensive) to purchase products. Having to deal with business hours shopping,
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
No one pays per month if they are smart and are able to make a single $99 payment.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
$27 times 73.5 million Medicaid recipients projected for 2017 = $1.985 billion
More victi^H^H^H^H customers (Score:1)
For Alexa to laugh at.
Not sure what to think of this (Score:2)
It's clearly no charity.... this is Discriminatory pricing plain and simple.
Attempting to encourage people who probably shouldn't be spending what little money they have on
entertainment to buy a service they probably should not be buying.
If it were for "charity", they'd be giving it away at $0.... instead they're still tryiing to Profit, and people with more income pay them more, so it's a form of unfair pricing for services, AND they're on dangerous ground to be discriminating based on participat
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It's clearly no charity.... this is Discriminatory pricing plain and simple.
No kidding? Of course it is discriminatory. Then again, so is special discounts/pricing for Veterans, NRA members, senior citizens, educators, and other groups.
It's just people on Medicaid, so already they are considered evil and money grubbing terrible entitled people.
Re: (Score:2)
If it were for "charity", they'd be giving it away at $0.... instead they're still tryiing to Profit,
2 shipments a month on Prime at the discounted rate and they've probably reached that $5.99 in free shipping alone. At the same time the Prime owner gets free music, free TV shows/movies(so less money they "need" to spend on cable), and even some free ebooks. The increased marketshare is probably more important to Amazon than the extra $6 a month in Prime fees.
Without cable, how do you connect to the Internet? (Score:2)
At the same time the Prime owner gets free music, free TV shows/movies(so less money they "need" to spend on cable)
Without cable, how does the Prime subscriber connect to the Internet in the first place, especially people who live outside the service footprint of fiber? If you meant a subscription to cable Internet without TV, consider that many pay TV subscribers subscribe to pay TV solely because the cable company charges less for a bundle of home Internet and basic TV service than for home Internet alone.
Re: (Score:2)
It's clearly no charity.... this is Discriminatory pricing plain and simple.
Attempting to encourage people who probably shouldn't be spending what little money they have on
entertainment to buy a service they probably should not be buying.
Not exactly sure what your point is, unless you think ill people should not have entertainment.
Walmart.com has a better deal (Score:2)
2 day shipping for $0 monthly cost for everyone.
Re: (Score:2)
Who can afford to move to such a state? (Score:2)
To get on Medicaid you have to either A. afford to move to a Medicaid-expansion state or B. spend down all your assets to practically nothing.