SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California’s Medicaid program will continue to pay Walgreens about $1.5 billion each year inspiteof Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom stating last month the state was done doing service with the drugstore giant after it showed it would not sell abortion tablets by mail in some states.
“California won’t be doing organization with @Walgreens — or any business that cringes to the extremists and puts ladies’s lives at threat. We’re done,” Newsom tweeted March 6.
He then bought his administration not to restore a $54 million agreement with the business to offer prescription medication to the state’s jail system.
But cutting ties with Walgreens wasn’t as clear cut as the guv veryfirst suggested. Walgreens has a much more rewarding connection to California’s Medicaid program — the joint federal and state health insurancecoverage program for individuals who are handicapped or have low earnings. Federal law states Medicaid clients have the right to fill prescriptions from any ready and certified supplier.
That consistsof Walgreens.
Last year, California’s Medicaid program paid the business more than $1.5 billion. The California Department of Health Care Services stated California will continue to comply with that law, Kaiser Health News reported.
“California has no intent of taking any action that would break federal Medicaid requirements, or that might weaken gainaccessto for low-income people,” stated Tony Cava, spokesperson for the California Department of Health Care Services.
Anthony York, representative for the guv, likewise informed Kaiser Health News that the Newsom administration had welcomed