Amazon Pharmacy is currently geared towards as-needed regular medications like asthma inhalers. Gizmodo reports that the service also seems to be taking aim at the notion of health insurance — customers will be shown two price options, one with their current medical insurance and one without. Amazon has been touting this non-insurance option as the cheaper way to go, noting on the pricing page for the new service that “Prime members save on prescriptions when paying without insurance.”
This isn’t Amazon’s first foray into the pharmaceutical industry. In 2018, the company acquired PillPack, a monthly medication delivery service. This service was designed for people with multiple regular medications, presorting them into labeled daily packs so that people don’t have to guess when to take what. Amazon Pharmacy appears to be building off of that and trying to get more, different kinds of users to make Amazon their drug provider.
