Walgreens Refuses New Medicaid Patients April 16th

Walgreen's drugstores in the state of Washington will refuse all new Medicaid patients beginning April 16th. Welcome to ObamaKare.

It's not difficult to understand why Walgreens would make this decision. Washington State reimburses pharmacies less than the cost of their participation. This takes 121 Walgreens stores in the state out of the program.

Bartell Drugs in Washington State began refusing new Medicaid patients in all 57 stores in February. Ritzville Drug Company withdrew from the Medicaid program in November 2009.

This is how government does business:

Washington was reimbursing pharmacies 86% of a drug's average wholesale price until July, when it began paying them just 84%...that move was expected to save the state about $10 million.

Walgreens and others can suck-it-up, apparently.

Here's comforting news: No worries, the Washington State Medicaid director said patients should be able to find other drugstores to fill their medications. Feel better now?

Visit Memorandum for more on Walgreen's refusing to serve new Medicaid patients.