California Cancels May 2023 Renewal of Walgreens Prison System Pharma Contract AOC She

In the first step of an “exhaustive review” of all contracts between Walgreens and the state of California, Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Wednesday that California will not renew a $54 million contract by which Walgreens delivers pharmacy services to inmates in California’s prison system. The contract was set to renew on May 1, 2023.

“This is an attempt to call the question ‘Which side are you on? Whose side are you on?” Newsom said in an interview with POLITICO ahead of the announcement. “Are you going to just cower in the face of bullies? Are you going to just roll over?”

Gov. Newsom stresses that he intends to review every contract the state of California has with Walgreens. Some may require legislative action to replace Walgreens with another supplier.

NPR reports that California “might try to use its public health insurance plans - like the Obamacare exchange plans, Medicaid, insurance for state employees - to make those plan not contract with Walgreens. That would mean people with those plans wouldn't be able to get any of their medications filled through Walgreens.”

Such an action would be supremely complicated and slow to implement. But the fourth largest economy in the world — the state of California — could probably bankrupt Walgreens if it decided to do so.

Update 4/9/23: As anticipated, Kaiser Health News wrote on April 6, that CA Governor Newsom can’t cut Walgreens out of federal health plans like Medicaid and Obamacare exchange plans. The state paid Walgreens $1.5 billion in 2022 for Medi-Cal prescriptions.

Meanwhile CEO Brewer has big plans to put Walgreens into Medicare-supported health care facilities — new ways for Walgreens to make money from the federal government — OUR tax dollars.

Note that Walgreens issued a statement on Monday that sought to clarify their intention to sell the abortion pill based on the laws in place in the state, implying that they would follow the laws in the state and the state constituton, and not the instructions of the attorney general if they were at odds with state laws.

States involved include Alaska, Iowa, Kansas and Montana. A Los Angeles Times March 8, 2023 op-ed argues that abortion is legal in half of the 21 states that received the Walgreens letter demanding that they desist in selling abortion pills.

Alaska Legislators Tell Walgreens to Ignore Their Attorney General

On March 7, Alaska legislators urged Walgreens leadership to reconsider its decision not to sell the abortion drug mifepristone in the state after what they called “inappropriate pressure” from the state’s attorney general, Treg Taylor.

Nearly two dozen members of the Alaska House and Senate signed on to the letter and enclosed a copy of the state’s constitution, encouraging Walgreens CEO Rosalind Brewer to review it.

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