Gov. Butch Otter has sent out a guest opinion to Idaho newspapers touting his Primary Care Access Program, the $30 million initiative he’s proposing this year to provide some basic primary and preventive care to the 78,000 Idahoans who currently fall into a coverage gap – they make too much to qualify for Idaho’s limited Medicaid program, and too little to qualify for subsidized health insurance plans through the state insurance exchange.

“PCAP is not the final word on providing Idaho citizens with the opportunities they need to keep themselves and their families healthy. But it could be a great start,” the governor writes.

“Responses have run the gamut from ‘It’s not enough – just expand Medicaid’ to ‘We shouldn’t do anything but focus on repealing Obamacare.’” But, he writes, “The fact is that the PCAP option – or something very much like it – is all that we can reasonably hope to achieve right now in the context of Idaho’s political environment.

You can read Otter’s full piece here.