Amazon to offer Prime discount to Medicaid recipients

Amazon says that it will offer discounts on its Prime service to Medicaid recipients.

Low-income individuals eligible for the government’s health insurance program will be able to get Prime for $5.99 a month, a seven-dollar discount from its standard monthly cost of $12.99.

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To qualify, an individual must either be on Medicaid or have an Electronic Benefits Card. {mosads}

The announcement comes after Amazon said last year that it would offer a low-cost version of Prime for U.S. customers who receive government assistance.

A Prime subscription gets a user perks like free two-day shipping on many items on Amazon, access to Amazon’s music and video streaming platforms and access to its food-shipping service Prime Pantry.

The move will push Amazon more directly into competition with Walmart, whose low-cost items help it dominate low-income markets.

Walmart, as part of its effort to compete more directly with Amazon, purchased the e-commerce platform Jet.com in 2016 for $3.3 billion.