LOS ANGELES – May 9, 2019 – We are encouraged to see the Governor’s May Revise maintains his commitment to expand Medi-Cal coverage for young adults, invest in California’s healthcare workforce, fight homelessness and support families. Expanding Medi-Cal to cover all eligible young adults, regardless of immigration status, is an important step toward the promise of universal coverage, and we look forward to working with the Governor as we move toward the goal of ensuring coverage for ALL Californians. At the same time, we are concerned the budget maintains a change for pharmacy services in the Medi-Cal program which, if enacted, would greatly harm community health centers. While we support the Governor’s goal of lowering the cost of drugs for Californians, the budget calls for transitioning pharmacy services from managed care to fee-for-service by 2021. This would eliminate savings from the 340B Drug Discount Program and result in the loss of hundreds of millions annually to California’s safety net health care providers. Community clinics and health centers rely on these savings to provide critical services to our most vulnerable communities. We urge the Administration to explore alternative strategies to reduce drug pricing and protect safety net providers.
THE COMMUNITY CLINIC ASSOCIATION OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY (CCALAC) is the largest regional association of community clinics and health centers in California. Founded in 1994, CCALAC has 65 members that operate over 350 clinic sites throughout LA County. CCALAC is dedicated to serving and representing the interests of its member clinics as providers of quality health care, including medical, dental and pharmacy services. For more information about CCALAC, visit www.ccalac.org or call (213) 201-6500.
Contact:
Elaiza Torralba, Communications Specialist, (213) 201-6529
Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County
700 S. Flower Street, Suite 3150, Los Angeles, CA 90017