That’s the dumbest thing ever in Mississippi complained a businessman. Other businessmen at the table piped up. That may be dumb, they said, but not the dumbest. But, uh, none said it wasn’t dumb.

The subject was Mississippi political leaders’ obstinate opposition to Medicaid expansion. The first businessman had attended a Mississippi Economic Council session where such expansion was discussed.

Weeks before the Delta Council announced Medicaid expansion would be “in the best interest of our rural economies.”

“An analysis by the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning confirms that the State of Mississippi would actually profit from the decision, increase employment by over 11,000 individuals in the healthcare and social services sector, provide over 220,000 unserved Mississippians – many of them working poor – coverage for the first time, substantially enhance the bottom line and ability to provide services for the healthcare field particularly in rural areas like ours, and drive down the cost of private insurance for employers,” read the Council’s statement.

The main obstacles to Medicaid expansion by state leaders, particularly Gov. Tate Reeves and House Speaker Philip Gunn, appear to be cost and its origin as part of Obamacare. The IHL study revealed, as had others before, that the cost concern does not stand up. That just leaves the Obamacare link.

Greenwood Commonwealth publisher Tim Kalich described the situation like this: “Gunn and other political leaders, most prominently Gov. Tate Reeves, have refused to consider expansion because it was an idea initiated and pushed by Democrats. No matter how much Mississippi insured workers would benefit, no matter how much financial struggling rural hospitals would be helped, no matter how large a boost extra billions a year from Washington would provide to the state’s economy, Gunn and others of the same mindset have refused to listen.”

Well, that perspective makes state leaders’ position look pretty dumb on the face of it. But the truly remarkable aspect of all this is to hear businessmen beginning to say out loud that it’s dumb. That’s an astounding paradigm change.

No doubt the Delta Council’s position was influenced by the troubling status of one of its region’s key hospitals, Greenwood Leflore Hospital.

“Hospital Laying off 30; Undisclosed Number of Physicians Included,” read the most recent headline in the Commonwealth. “The layoffs came a week after (CEO Jason) Studley publicly acknowledged that the hospital was running out of cash and would have to take ‘drastic measures’ to keep its doors open.”

The hospital released financial figures showing it lost $1.9 million in April following a $3.1 million loss in March. At that rate its cash reserves would be fully depleted before year-end.

Losing another hospital in Mississippi would rank high up the dumbness scale.

Another businessman at the table wondered if our leaders might be smart enough to adopt a conservative version of Medicaid expansion like Mike Pence did while Governor of Indiana.

As Forrest Gump said…well, you know what he said.

“My people are fools…they know not how to do good” – Jeremiah 4:22.

Crawford is a syndicated columnist from Jackson