Amazon Gives Prime Discount to Medicaid Recipients, Reports Say

(Bloomberg) -- Amazon.com Inc. is offering a discount on its Prime membership to the millions of Medicaid recipients in the U.S., according to media reports, taking another step to wooing lower-income shoppers and keeping pressure on Walmart Inc.

Under the offer, customers on Medicaid, the public health insurance program for low-income Americans, can get Amazon Prime for $5.99 a month, or less than half the new regular monthly fee of $12.99, according to reports in Recode and the New York Times. The move expands on an effort started last June, when Amazon introduced a discounted price for shoppers who receive government assistance in the form of an electronic benefits transfer card. Amazon also last year began a program to deliver groceries to food-stamp recipients.

The offer for Medicaid beneficiaries is another effort by Amazon to target consumers with tighter budgets. The Amazon Prime membership gives shoppers perks such as free two-day shipping on millions of products, free photo storage and online streaming of thousands of movies and music. While Amazon doesn't say how many members Prime has, those customers usually spend more and buy more frequently than non-members. A regular Prime membership costs $99 a year.

The goal of the discounts is to give more people access to “aspects of the digital economy -- some conveniences and benefits -- that I think a lot of us take for granted,” Amazon executive Aaron Perrine told Recode.

To contact the reporter on this story: Molly Schuetz in New York at mschuetz9@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jillian Ward at jward56@bloomberg.net, Giles Turner

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