By Executive Order on January 12, 2016, Governor John Bel Edwards fulfilled his campaign promise by unilaterally adopting Medicaid Expansion, better known as Obamacare. No vote of the Legislature, just a quick signature and we were in.

Doubtless his biggest mistake was that, unlike what several other states did, he didn’t even try to gain advantages for our people from a President Obama who was desperate for states to sign on. He didn’t ask for any better terms for Louisiana, he just signed that Executive Order and Louisiana’s future was hitched to the purest form of socialized medicine that Democrats could ram through Congress. This was a form that was so wildly unpopular with voters that at the next election they awarded the GOP with a huge turnover in Congress.

Back then Edwards promised the state that we would save money, that we would see great health outcome improvements. Well, largely due to his Executive Order the state’s budget has gone from under $30 billion to over $50 billion, so that promise was phony. I agree that much of the growth was Federal funds, but there is that nagging match and a massive increase in bureaucracy that we must pay for with General Fund dollars.

So, for the last decade what has happened to healthcare in Louisiana? Has anyone, especially in the media, bothered to ask what benefits we have seen from such a major change and such immense expenditure? Has anyone asked if Governor Edwards could, or should have made a deal with Obama that perhaps would have capped our exposure to exponential cost increases?

Our legislature, using its investigatory powers, should be the appropriate venue to revisit Louisianna’s version of Obamacare. The basis of such an investigation strategy should include a few questions.

First, even though Governor Edwards promised and the media happily agreed that Obamacare would save Louisiana money, just how much have we spent? More, specifically how much state general funds have we spent and continue to see grow, funds that would in other circumstances have gone to public safety, infrastructure, education, etc. How much would we have spent had we not adopted Medicaid Expansion? How many people were added to Medicaid roles growing the state’s expenses, that would have had private insurance?

Next, in 2015 what were key health metrics, comparable to other states, that were recorded in Louisiana? I don’t mean all the minutia, just the biggies; cancer, obesity, heart disease, mental health, pregnant women’s issues, communicable disease, whatever medical statisticians focus on. Now, what are our results in 2025, specifically what are the results that are attributable to Obamacare? Has our population seen substantial improvements in health outcomes?

Finally, how is all this money being spent? Are we paying for buying doctors’ practices, are hospitals building all sorts of new facilities and adding massive amounts of bureaucracy and wasteful expenditures, are we funding massive growth in salaries and benefits, and so on. Let’s find out where tens of billions of taxpayer money are going.

I would be happily surprised to hear that an independent and neutral investigation finds that Governor Edwards was right, Obamacare was the best thing to happen to Louisiana since Mardi Gras. I guess that I was too long in politics, so I am very careful to say, “independent and neutral”. It would be too convenient for any political body to deliver the results that it wants to deliver, that happens all the time. There is so much money at play that producing desired results is a very real danger. So “independent and neutral” it must be.

As the Washington Post ironically puts it “Democracy Dies in Darkness”. I say ironically because the Post is one of the most liberally prejudiced media outlets in our nation, but their motto is very true. There is great darkness surrounding Louisiana’s Medicaid Expansion, Obamacare. It has been a political subject that is too hot to handle. But our legislature should take on an independent and neutral study of all facets of 2016’s Medicaid Expansion, especially how it works or doesn’t work in 2025.

A little light will penetrate the darkness, and who knows, we may all be surprised with what we find out.