Years ago, only bought apply care for my mac computers - and well worth the investment of $249-299 as one motherboard upgrade required once on older iBook. Never got apple care when iPhone first came out but now that millions of devices being churned out, even with low percentage of defects chances of getting burned increased exponentially.

Apple care is being shelved and now I believe they only offer Apple Care +, which costs $99 for devices but does add 'replacement' of broken devices where the fault is yours! Is it worth it? For me, $100 is good protection, even if only for one extra year when my iPad Air cost me almost $850. If you're paying full price for new iPhone, price will be in ballpark too.

Read here for some perspectives:

Apple care:
http://www.macworld.com/article/2048...worth-it-.html
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5515106
http://gigaom.com/2013/09/26/is-appl...ur-new-iphone/

Apple vs Network insurance: http://www.imore.com/which-iphone-ap...should-you-get