Not sure what your suggesting here....make sure you drop your phone in the first year? or if you don't have Applecare in the second year, it costs half as much?
Most of us trade up every year, even on carrier payment plans, we dont own the phones for more than 12 months. So you never need to worry about the 2nd year.
So it's not costing $199 but roughly more than half that when you get your refund from Apple in fall 2018