Walgreens to Promote Affordable Care Act

The Walgreen Co. (Deerfield, Ill.), the nation’s largest drugstore chain, will join with The Blue Cross Blue Shield Assn. to promote the Affordable Care Act.

The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association comprises 38 state and local health plans. It is setting up an educational web site with Walgreens and also distributing information in the retailer’s 8000 stores.

The promotional materials won’t recommend any specific insurance plan and customers won’t be able to enroll in stores. The campaign is aimed at encouraging people without insurance to use the government exchanges to shop for subsidized health plans.

The Walgreens-Blue Cross effort would be the largest by private industry to promote the 2010 health-care law.

“There’s a lot of confusion, a lot of questions, and it’ll take a tremendous collaborative effort to make sure people have the information they need to make informed choices,” said Brad Fluegel, Walgreen’s chief strategy officer.

The companies didn’t disclose financial terms of the partnership.