The office of the Legislative Auditor has begun looking into the problems surrounding MNsure, the state’s health exchange created under the Affordable Care Act.

Highly touted before its roll-out as providing the lowest insurance rates of any similar exchange in the nation, the program has been hit with technical glitches, application delays, lost applications and service outages.

James Nobles, the legislative auditor is the state’s watchdog, and there will be plenty here for him and his staff to scrutinize. Nobles has said this week that MNsure will be his top priority this year.

Good. Minnesota has spent a lot of money and issued costly contracts to set up the program, as well as funding a widespread advertising campaign featuring Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox to encourage Minnesotans to sign up.

When people tried and found out they couldn’t get through, or that their applications were lost, or couldn’t be processed, it makes people wonder what the heck has been going on and who’s been doing what with all that money.

“What Minnesotans should expect, and what I will deliver to them, is a thorough, independent, objective assessment,” Nobles said. “I know people have a lot of questions about how this all happened, and I hope to answer as many of them as I possibly can.”

The answers can’t come too soon.