Otter seeks plan for medical school

BOISE – Gov. Butch Otter has asked health industry officials to come up with a plan for an Idaho medical school that he can present to lawmakers in the next legislative session.

Otter pitched the idea Tuesday before the start of a two-day health care summit that was attended by representatives from the insurance industry, hospitals, state agencies, lawmakers and other organizations. The Republican governor challenged the group to come up with ways to make health care more “affordable and accessible” for Idaho residents.

Otter made some opening remarks before the closed-door, invitation-only meeting. Nearly any idea was open for discussion, Otter said, though he specifically requested one and pre-emptively rejected another:

“I’d like to see Idaho finally creating our own medical school,” he said in his remarks before about 60 guests convened for the meeting. “I need you to avoid the impulse to be all things to all people. … We’re not going to have a single-payer health care system in Idaho.”

Idaho’s spread-out population poses some specific health care challenges that a medical school could ease, Otter said. If students can get medical degrees in Idaho, they’re more likely to work in the state, he said, boosting the low doctor-to-patient ratio.

“If someone has to drive 200 or 250 miles through the Idaho terrain” to reach a doctor, that shows there’s a problem, Otter said.