“What does ‘free’ healthcare mean?  . . . It isn’t free treatment, it’s depersonalized treatment.” — Dr. Oreshchenkov in Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s 1967 novel “Cancer Ward.” By Craig Ladwig An idea planted here six years ago could make the difference in Indiana healthcare. It begins by asking Indiana hospitals to give patients a firm price in advance of a procedure or operation. It ends by restoring the relationship between patients and their doctors. It all is…

by Andrea Neal Indiana’s 1816 Constitution called for a statewide system of free public schools, but it didn’t happen until the 1850s — after education reformers demanded it. The chief lobbyist for taxpayer-funded schools was Caleb Mills, who used the power of the pen to persuade lawmakers that illiteracy was a threat to Indiana’s future. He’s been called the father of the Indiana public school system ever since. Born in New Hampshire in 1806 and…

by Andy Horning You may label me a cultural illiterate, an ignoramus — and that’s more fact than denunciation. I don’t know anything about professional sports, for example. I know there are innumerable magazines, cable channels, radio stations and websites devoted to such things. Many Americans can rattle off sport statistics back to the 19-aughts and name every player, team owner and sponsor. I know that the amount of money in sports at all levels…

MANY OF US HERE would rather ignore the Indianapolis Star’s Gannett-speak, as do most thoughtful persons. But the newspaper is an Indiana mass medium, so our mission statement requires our attention to it. Respecting the membership’s time nonetheless, we are stating the conclusion up front: The Star as an indicator of the public mood, a bellwether, a prescient commentator on the serious issues of our day, is not worth the 50 cents it costs. If…

“THE WHOLE MODERN WORLD has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives,” C.K. Chesterton famously began. “The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes; the business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected.” Holding Chesterton’s thought close, know that the mantle of education reformer is wearing thin for the Indiana Chamber of Commerce. Since the insipid A+ program of the 1980s, it has provided the lobbying impetus for one ineffectual…

By Stephen M. King, Ph.D. The Cato Institute, a Washington D.C. libertarian policy think tank, recently released its “2014 Fiscal Policy Report Card on America’s Governors.” The results are positive for Indiana. The goal of the biennial report is to grade and comment on all 50 governors’ “fiscal policies from a limited-government perspective.” Only four governors received an “A” grade: North Carolina’s Pat McCrory (R), Kansas’ Sam Brownback (R), Maine’s Paul LePage (R) and Indiana’s…

by Andrea Neal George Washington Julian did not think much of compromise. In the decades before the Civil War, he was Indiana’s most radical abolitionist. Although he is little known by Hoosiers today, Julian made a lasting mark on the national scene. “He was always the ready champion of the principle of fundamental democracy — ‘equal rights for all, special privileges for none,’ regardless of race, color, creed, or sex,” wrote Indiana historian James Albert…

By Bruce Ippel, M.D. I have a small business — a service business — but it’s not like your accountant or plumber or lawyer. I’m a doc, a family doc. And I can save your life or at least make it longer and more pleasant. I’ve been in this business a long time. I see children of patients I delivered . . . and occasionally I might have even delivered the grandmother. I stopped delivering…

by Cecil Bohanon, Ph.D. One of my favorite professors from graduate-school days passed away on Election Day. Gordon Tullock was a founding member of the Public Choice School of Economics. Public Choice uses economic tools, models and ways of thinking to analyze the decisions of voters, legislators and bureaucrats. Voters, for example, should be well informed about candidates and issues. But what does economic theory predict? Joe College graduates from State U. Joe wants a…

POLITICAL UNITY is perhaps the most impossible of human goals. There is no combination of policies on the table in front of us that would achieve it. But the Devil, as a new GOP leadership will soon discover, loves an impossible task. He will have his snare and compromises ready. A veteran political observer, William Murchison, has a strategy for that. He suggests Republican not put their hope in finely calculated policy initiatives or even…