MC Squared

Episode 11 : Inside Indiana's State Politics: A Conversation with Senator Jon Ford

• Andrew McNeil

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When we think about the challenges facing children in the foster care system, we often overlook the impact it has on the individuals involved in making decisions for those children. Our special guest, State Senator Jon Ford, shares his personal story of adoption and offers a unique perspective on the current state of Indiana's foster care system. He also speaks to his legislative efforts to improve conditions for foster children, including providing attorneys for kids in the system and setting aside funds for those who age out of care.

Senator Ford shares his thoughts on medical reform, non-compete clauses for doctors, and the importance of staying connected to the people you represent. This thought-provoking and informative episode provides an inside look at some of Indiana's most pressing concerns, so make sure to listen in and learn from Senator Jon Ford's firsthand experiences.

Intro music by Upstate - How Far We Can Go

Intro Music:

I got a fire in me. You're gonna set to burn. We got a world to see all the time.

Andrew:

Hi everybody and welcome to episode 11 of the MC Squared podcast, where I'm joined today by special guest state senator John Ford. Welcome, john, good night, good evening. And also co-host Jimmy McCann over here in the corner. So this is kind of exciting. I think you're our second guest, john, so I guess we'll get right to it. I was thinking back the other day to the first time I met you, and I don't know if you remember this or not, but this was back in 2014 when Hannah was running in a primary and it was several counties and it happened to overlap with Vigo, so Mary Wright had her tea party group and we all got the opportunity, i think, to speak in front of a lot of very well informed electorate and field a lot of tough questions, and I remember meeting you there. I don't know if we crossed paths earlier, maybe in Clay County, maybe just in passing.

Jon:

But yeah, those are the good ol' tea party days where people cared about fiscal responsibility. Doesn't seem like they do anymore, does it Long time ago, if you don't know, Yeah, absolutely.

Andrew:

Well, it's like I said. I've known you for a while and through a couple of campaigns and my past been a little different haven't won any elections, but you've won several. Is this have you won two?

Jon:

or three. First, i'm in my third term now.

Andrew:

Third term, and you didn't even have an opponent the last time, right.

Jon:

I did not Wow that's awesome. Everyone's smart. You get lucky.

Andrew:

That's great. So I wanted to start off with this, and I don't know if anybody's ever asked you this or not, and I probably should have asked you this off air as far as, because I have no idea what you're going to say, but I know that you were adopted and I know you weren't originally from Indiana, correct, right? Well, i have no idea what your child's story is. Would you be willing to say, or something like that Sure.

Jon:

Yeah, so I was born in a home for unwed mothers in Virginia and then in an orphanage for a little while and then put in the foster care system there in Virginia. I adopted out by two parents and then grew up with a sister that we adopted from Vietnam. So you know, foster care, adoption, refugee policy was always in our life, something we always talked about and, you know, later in life moved here to Indiana so my dad could work for the Hudson Institute at the time.

Andrew:

Oh, wow Yeah were they involved?

Jon:

I?

Andrew:

feel like I heard they were involved in politics somehow.

Jon:

Yeah, my dad had worked for the State Department. my mom had worked for the State Department as well, at an early age. That's awesome, yeah, so they were involved in federal government.

Andrew:

That is crazy. So that explains, then, your passion for foster care and all the initiatives you've done to help the foster kids and try to help DCS fix maybe a broken system there.

Jon:

Yeah, i mean it's been very clear from day one when I was elected at the foster care system here in Indiana needs a lot of work. I mean, our kids are almost double the average before they get to some level of permanency, either with reunification or adoption. And it's sad in my mind because we can do better and I know we can. Just, for whatever reason, you know there's a little resistance there on some of the change and you know we're one of six states now that doesn't provide attorneys for kids in the foster care system. So I think that's one of the main reasons why permanency takes so long here in Indiana.

Andrew:

Right, so I know we had talked that you've been working off session last year, i think, on hearings towards that end. Where are you in getting this to happen?

Jon:

So last summer we brought in national experts from all over the country to talk about this at the McKinney Law School and filed legislation that did not get heard this year. You know I'm running into kind of a brick wall. The judges don't necessarily like it, really. Yeah, i think it. you know like everything goes back to you know moving their cheese and you know right now they can appoint attorneys if they want. We really don't do that here in Indiana and I want to make it a requirement because I believe we're violating these kids constitutional rights Absolutely.

Andrew:

Every kid's should.

Jon:

well, every human, every citizen has the right to representation And due process if we've got kids here who aren't even in courtrooms when these decisions are made on their lives. You know we got a story, you know we got a case that just hit this spring where a 12 year old girl put into a correctional facility, never once was in the courtroom through the proceedings And she was in for 18 months 12 year old girl and if I showed you pictures of the cell you'd be shocked That here in America we were doing that to a young woman.

Andrew:

Well, that's good work that you're doing. I appreciate you doing that. I know that all the kids in foster care appreciate that And hopefully we can see this move forward. Start to see some of the roadblocks.

Jon:

Yeah, i mean we're moving the ball in other areas. You know, one thing in legislation this session I'm pretty proud of is we were able to get some money aside to help kids that age out of the foster care system. So kids that are 18 and in foster care, when they turn 18 they're now, you know, they're done with the system and literally left on their own with not many resources. So we were able to put some money aside to help them with housing and the 21st century scholar program So they can go to college and they can get help with housing.

Andrew:

Yeah, because the foster families that they've been with, no matter how much they love them or what a great home they're in, their payments from the state for support stop when they turn 18, is that right?

Jon:

Yeah, and they don't have to stay with the foster parent. The foster parent has no obligation to keep them.

Andrew:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, wow. That's something you don't hear in the news all the time.

Jon:

Yeah, it's funny, how that happens.

Andrew:

Jimmy, do you have?

Jimmy:

a question.

Andrew:

No you know I was going to do our drawing here a second. You can keep going And remember for that drawing. Yeah, that's right. On the last podcast, last episode I don't think we talked about it on the podcast, but afterwards in a promotion We talked about liking our Facebook or our Instagram page and tagging a couple of friends and we would enter a drawing for a $25 gift card.

Andrew:

So we're going to give that away here a little bit later and do that drawing. So I've got folks who listen to this podcast who don't have a clue about how a government works or anything like that, and we kind of pride ourselves a little bit in what we bring to the table is a little bit of education, hopefully, some entertainment usually are mistakes and also, you know, we bring Christianity into it when applicable.

Andrew:

So I want to ask you what a state senator does, how long you're in for and how much you make and what your district is.

Jon:

Okay, so my district is District 38, which covers all of Vigo County, clay County and northern part of Sullivan County. So that changed after the redistricting of 2020. State senators serve four-year terms. We are part-time. We make up, top my head, i think around $27,000. Okay, and we have what we call long and short sessions. So this year was a long session, a budget session. So constitutionally, the only bill we need to get done is the state budget And that's really for the only thing we're obligated to get done. Obviously, we get way too much other too many other bills passed from my liking, but then we do some summer study committees and then assign to other areas. So they say part-time, but it's really.

Andrew:

It sounds like a lot of work. Work for part-time, yeah.

Jon:

So I think I answered all those questions you threw out, let's see.

Andrew:

I think we What's your district? Yeah, i think you did.

Jon:

Let me talk about the committees I'm on, so we're assigned committees. So I am on public policy, which deals with guns, alcohol, gaming, things that are really deep dive issues, and in that committee we may have one or two bills a session because there's such big topics. Then I'm on child and family services. I'm ranking majority member on that, so that's everything that it sounds like Anything dealing with families. A lot of the foster care stuff goes through that committee. Then I'm on Senate appropriations, where I focus on foster care funding and higher education funding. So we've been going through some changes in higher ed, trying to make funding tied to performance, try to hold people accountable and make sure that we're.

Intro Music:

That's a mountain of idea, yeah.

Jon:

Yeah, it's taken three years to get that idea across the line, but we got it across the line. And then, lastly, i'm chairman of the election committee, so that's everything to deal with elections, from redistricting to rules for a precinct committee.

Andrew:

Which there's zero controversy with elections, correct?

Jon:

No controversy, I mean there's nothing contentious at all. Short committee meetings Yeah, four hours, i'll bet Sure.

Andrew:

So what's the makeup of the committee?

Jon:

Republicans are obviously a huge majority, but you have Democrats on every committee right, we do, we do, and on the Senate side so it's 40, 10. And different committees have makeup but on, like, say, elections, i've got two Democrats and seven Republicans And it's We. And you know the interesting thing is the majority of our bills, you know well, over 90, like I think 94%, pass on a bipartisan Yes measure. You know that's something you don't hear on the news. They only want to talk about the five or six percent That we argue. But a lot of bills we all work together in. A lot of legislation I work on, from election stuff to Foster care. I have, you know, democrats that are on the bills.

Andrew:

Yeah, that's great. Well, that's Indiana, yeah.

Andrew:

Yeah really Okay. So I wanted to ask you about about some of the legislation that has come past, gotten passed in the last two sessions. Actually I I have noticed and I could be off on this, but I've noticed a shift from economic only issues and it seems like the last two sessions, both the budget and then prior, some of the bigger issues going on in the nation and also in the state, as far as social conservative issues, they've, they've, they haven't taken on. You know all of them And they certainly haven't taken all the ones I wish they would take on, or at least in the way that I wish they would take one. But they have started to move the ball forward on that.

Andrew:

I know that was it two years ago. They dealt with girls in our boys And identifying as girls in girls high school sports. So they limited that. The governor vetoed it. You guys overwrote it, which was just an astounding political Episode in Indiana's history, the fact that a Republican governor is vetoing a 90 per 80 to 90 percent approved Legislation. I mean, everybody wants girl sports in high school.

Jon:

I'm like constituents right. Oh yeah, they wanted that. I heard clear and loud, yeah, that they, you know, did not want boys playing girl sports and that they Clearly saw the difference. Yeah, and it was surprising that the governor vetoed that, but we we knew going in that you probably would, so We were prepared and overwrote.

Andrew:

Yeah that wasn't the I mean that whole session. It's like almost every bill you guys were passing along those lines You were having to override his veto. So, picked up, i think that was the year two when the craziness was going on with COVID and the school boards and And we found out just recently that the FBI was literally in the parking lots of these school board meetings taking license plate numbers and putting them on a domestic terrorist watch list not official, so you know they weren't on official, but they were. They were watching parents and all these school board meetings.

Jon:

Yeah, i mean, i would say I mean before COVID we saw we started seeing parents really get engaged, really getting upset with the curriculum and some of the schools and really, you know, starting to ask questions and push back and After COVID it kind of sped up. You know, i think some of the mask mandating and some of these other policies where they would pass them without even taking public comments. Right, you know, that's the alarming thing to me that we have school boards that would literally pass through the school board meetings, that would literally pass major decisions and take no public comment. Yeah, and I think you know parents are still mad about that, still pushing back and really questioning curriculum right now.

Andrew:

Yeah, well, i think they should be. So you guys passed a law that mandates public, public input has to be taken. Tell me about that bill specifically, or the law, because it's law now.

Jon:

Yeah. So I mean we, we heard from all over the state that school boards were not taking public comment. And in my district I had had a school school district who Would not take public comment and the superintendent I disagreed on it, but he did it anyway And then he started moving meetings around so people couldn't find them. And then they, when they were forced to take public comment, the school board members now just don't answer. So after getting this feedback from constituents, we passed the bill and we literally I mean, this is not something I thought I'd ever have to deal with had to have a floor debate on how many minutes parents should get to speak at a school board meeting. You know, four minutes, three minutes, you know, and it was four hours of my life. I'll never get back.

Jon:

I don't know if we picked the right decision, but I kind of think. Again, common sense, let the local school board decide that kind of thing. But unfortunately, you know, public education has been overrun and They really don't want to make decisions. I think it's, you know, i think we set it up where school boards are supposed to be the boss And I think it's now switched where the superintendent leads the school board down the path that they want.

Andrew:

Which is an interesting dynamic and it's not at all what what it was set up or intended to do.

Jimmy:

It's not what parents?

Andrew:

think you know when you're electing a school board member. You're, you're hoping that they're they're representing you, Because we don't elect a superintendent right.

Jon:

Yeah, that's the way and it's. It's kind of interesting to watch. I mean, you, you, you see people get elected that you think are going to do certain things, and The superintendent waves their little fairy dust over them and all of a sudden they do whatever the superintendent wants them to do, yeah, and there's some kind of a dogma about a, you know, a united front and and you know We're all we'll have each other's backs, but they don't seem to have the they don't seem to be as concerned about having the parents backs Which, or the taxpayers, which to me is front and center.

Andrew:

That should be the number one concern.

Jon:

Well, it's kind of I mean it's concerning to me where you have an environment where everything has to be A guess vote or we can't talk about it right. I mean, who cares if there's a no vote and someone else has a different point of view?

Intro Music:

Exactly.

Jon:

You know, so it's. It's been turned upside down, in my opinion. I think, hopefully, with some of the stuff that we're passing, but you know, some of the stuff we're passing, we shouldn't have to.

Andrew:

But right, we are well. That's, i think, kind of what happens. So, ultimately, we don't want our legislatures to have to determine how many minutes a parent gets to talk, but the fact that they were being denied over and over again And it was, i mean, it was in your district, but it was all over the state was all over the country Yeah, i mean it was a country-wide thing that was happening.

Jon:

And did you see what happened this week at the glendale california school board meeting? Yes, and tifa shows up and there's a big brawl Because parents were voicing something different. Yeah, then what teachers or the, the school board wanted?

Andrew:

Yeah, parents have awakened and it's, it's a. It is a good thing, it's not a bad thing. But you do hear a lot of complaining among teachers unions, a lot of complaining. You know, parents should just kind of leave it to the experts and that's, that's just a.

Jon:

That's a little bit of a salt in the wound, if you ask me so well, i mean, i think you know when I was growing up and you know I'm probably older than you two, but my, you know, parents are always involved, pto groups are always engaged And I think now you know the pto groups don't seem to be as big. And you know probably all you know Could be boiled down to you know the breakdown of the family is not what it was 20 years ago And you know we need a little bit more of the, you know, family focused Yeah, absolutely, environments.

Jimmy:

Yeah, like the, the evenings are probably full of many other things And the people that show up at the school board meetings are probably just the people that are mad about something.

Jon:

Yeah, it's like having a podcast at 6 30 at night.

Jimmy:

I wonder about. I wonder about the shift of power you were talking about, or the shift in in Between the school board and the administrator. And I really wonder if those people on the school board, when because cove had put them in a Light like they've probably never been in before, and I wonder if That was that shift where they shifted to the administrator was more of us. I don't want to be the bad guy and we're going to make them do the. You know, make him, make the decision.

Jon:

I think. In my opinion, i think it started long before cove it. It just showed up more. We could see it in cove it.

Jimmy:

Right, we all had a little more free time To pay attention and you're right, i think we all noticed it more, but I think it happened a long time ago and then they publicized them on youtube videos and you can watch it on facebook live and you get a lot more people that are watching and and Listening, but never be not taking, taking part in it.

Jon:

You know, what's interesting to me is, i mean, when you really think about it. You know, here in vego county our school system is 166 million dollar business. I mean that's more than the county government and city government put together a taxpayer money and they don't feel their politicians or they don't feel that they are accountable to taxpayers.

Andrew:

Yep, No, I hear a lot. You know Republicans are ruining the education system. Republicans can't stop meddling in the education system. And that just is astounding. Of course it's only coming from the teachers union, but they put that stuff out there and these teachers believe this stuff. I mean they really believe. Hey, republicans are best. And what's amazing to me is you guys passed record amount of money to your two budget, three budgets and around. Yes, Just incredible amount of money over at the state's budget goes to education and there's hardly any strings.

Jon:

Well, and talk about again things we shouldn't have to do but to make up for the lack of school boards, you know, really working, you know teachers, you know, want higher salaries. Right, and they, you know, starting teachers probably should have higher salaries. But when we give record amounts to school corporations and teachers still don't get increased salaries, and they get stipends, it's not us.

Jon:

It's these school boards not making the right decisions. So now we've had to put in the law. First it was 40% of the money that goes to schools has to be spent on teachers that are in front of kids, not administrators. Not five basketball coaches and 10 football, but teachers in front of kids. This year we increased it to 62% because we still found 100 schools still wouldn't pay their teachers $40,000 minimum salaries.

Andrew:

Well, it's a bureaucracy. Yeah, I mean, it's what it is. It's top heavy bureaucracy. So it's what we're. it's actually the problem we're dealing with. Little bit of free market doesn't never hurts anybody.

Jon:

Yeah, it's going to take. parents and voters are going to step up and demand more out of out of the school systems. I mean, when you think about to be a county, we have 12% of our population without a high school diploma. So this didn't start at COVID. This has been an issue for a long time. And what percentage of those?

Andrew:

and again, not to knock on. obviously we're home schoolers here, not to knock on public school. I mean we've got a lot of good friends who go to the public school. We want it to be, as you do, the best possible education these kids can get. But what percentage of those high school graduates can read at a second grade level? I mean it's, it's not, it's not a huge number, yeah, what level are they in SATs and math scores? It's awful. This the the testing that came out right after COVID. So right when they returned they did some testing of the middle schools and it was. it was atrocious. And here at Vigo County was atrocious.

Jon:

The learning loss from COVID. I mean it's going to take us a long time to make up for that And I think you know we're going to see it in high school scores and kids coming out And you know, hopefully, you know schools are putting programs together. I mean we've put some money aside to do summer schools And you know, i think some districts are doing that. Yeah, you bet.

Jimmy:

Well, i see you have in front of you there some information about the state budget. So what's? I'm a healthcare guy, so I'm on a big health department board, but I'm also I've worked at a hospital my entire life and we know that this county, in this area, unfortunately ranks really low in the counties for health. Is there anything that you guys are doing from the state to assist? And I mean, like I said, there's, you can't. it's not a perfect silver bullet, but what's the what's the talk going on at the state about health?

Jon:

Yeah, so we, we, you know the governor had a big initiative to. His goal was to spend 500 million this budget for healthcare and really to help health departments that need more resources get those resources. Unfortunately, i think he went into it that we were going to mandate this across counties and then take the commissioners and county councils out of it. So it was one of the more controversial topics during session. But I think we got it to a good place where now counties can opt in it's grant oriented, so you can opt in on certain parts and not on other parts. And you know I I supported that because again, allows a county to decide. So county up north may want to do it, vigo County may not claim a, i mean, so it just lets them choose what to do.

Jon:

But it's programs to try to deal with, you know, healthcare and rural Indiana, because we obviously know health. As you said, healthcare is not good, you know. And an interesting thing, that one of the reasons we need to do it is Medicaid. This year had a double digit increase, almost 20% increase in Medicaid, over $700 million of our budget. So when you you know, as a pie chart here, for the first time since I've been elected. Education is under 50%.

Jon:

Oh, wow, i didn't know that And that's because Medicaid now is 18% of the state budget Wow And growing.

Jimmy:

So do you think it's from more people being eligible for Medicaid? Are they loosening any of the constraints to getting on Medicaid? Or is it just an aging population that's kind of Medicare is more of aging, but what do you think is causing that?

Jon:

I think it's all all of those things. I mean an unhealthy population. I mean in our area it's our poverty, right. I mean we've ramped generational poverty here. I think you know drugs. I think that's something we don't talk a lot about, but I think you know some of these early, you know some of these late baby boomers and drug use And I think people some people are older than I think they really are physically, you know, because of alcohol and drug use. And I think you know in our area, i mean it's it's, you know it's a challenge. I mean it's a challenge for our hospitals to work under receiving, you know, medicaid payments because they're not what they should be or what they are private payers. And you know, i know you, you know you work for union. I know they, you know, struggle with that And so does regional.

Jimmy:

Yeah, Because you treat everybody that comes in the exact same way and it it all comes out on the back end And you hope that you're able to pay the bills, pay the employees, And that's been a difficult thing for for us. But I really think a lot, a lot of things that are kind of panning out with, if it's not the, the health crisis, is the drug use in this area, but not necessarily who you think it is. I think it's really the degradation of the 40 year olds, the 50 year olds and those and then and then putting the burden of, let's say, their kids or their kids on that other generation, the older generation, and kind of burden them out too. So I mean, I usually think of drug use as being the 20s and all those, but I really think it's deeper than that in here into those older generations, and it's causing, exactly like you said, generational poverty and that just continues, continues to roll that way.

Jon:

And I do think coming out of COVID it has sped up some the unhealthy folks. I mean I think there are a lot of people who didn't seek treatment for various things and I think we're seeing some that older population passing away from things. Maybe that had they sought treatment a few years earlier, could have lived longer. We're definitely seeing some of that, but it I mean it's we're trying to do a weekend to solve some of that. I mean transportation is an issue. You know. Recently we did a study and found that in our region, west Central, almost 8% of our population does not have access to one vehicle. So how does you know that person in rural Vermillion County get to healthcare, not just on an emergency basis but regular basis for healthcare maintenance? and how do they get to a pharmacy, another issue we have here. I mean I went today to get medicine for one of my boys and the pharmacy was closed. Walgreens down south closed, you know, on a what do you say Thursday at four o'clock in the afternoon.

Jimmy:

They can't hire pharmacists. They're having trouble hiring pharmacists, yeah. So it's consolidating people to farm it like Walgreens. It's a big pharmacy. They're limited And so we talk about that. As far as when you discharge somewhere from the hospital, we almost have to give them the medications for their entire time at home, because if not, they won't get them and guess what? They're going to get sick again and come back even worse. So it's an interesting, interesting time for health.

Jon:

So yeah, and it's and that's another area that we did spend a lot of time on was healthcare costs, you know trying to bring down healthcare costs, because you know some parts of our state have extremely high healthcare costs And you know, my concern is that you know we've got five big nonprofit hospitals here that really, you know, have a lot of money in the bank and on Wall Street And unfortunately, i think in rural Indiana, some of our local hospitals get sucked into that battle. And I think that's something that we're always, or I'm always, paying attention to, because, you know, healthcare in Carmel or Fort Wayne is different than what we have here in turn And we can't lump it all together. Rural healthcare is really challenged right now.

Andrew:

Yeah.

Jimmy:

I found something really interesting out this week going through looking back through budgetary on healthcare and I'll get off healthcare for this but we're having trouble with people obviously paying, which we've had for a long time. But I just found out that if you don't pay your medical bill, it won't go against your credit. So think about what that does. If you are having trouble keeping the lights on or having food, what's the last thing you're going to pay Your medical bill?

Andrew:

Yeah, That you feel was too high anyway.

Jimmy:

So and then they're trying to keep the. Yeah, so it's. I'm not saying that it should go on your credit, i don't think anyway, but that gives a perspective on you know where. Once that big bill comes, you're like shoot, i can push that to the back. That's the last thing I want to pay when I have extra.

Jon:

So and you probably can't understand it anyway. Oh my goodness.

Jimmy:

Why? what is the why?

Andrew:

I don't know why there's in some of its places four months, five months after it took place. Yes, And maybe it just makes people really upset.

Jimmy:

We live in 2023. And the medical billing system is the most archaic, cryptic thing you've ever seen. And then and then, people just don't trust it. Yeah, they just don't trust it.

Jon:

It's funny how those kind of things happen. I mean, yeah.

Andrew:

Well, what's interesting to me while we were talking, what came to mind? I just finished a book about the founding of, about the settlers that moved west and settled Ohio and moved into Indiana, but it was specifically the title of the book was like something about settlers And I was all excited, you know the early pioneers. I was all excited to read it. But it was true, but it was. It was actually only about Marietta, ohio, and what what? what came to mind was the, the physicians that would go out there And these guys, i mean they, they, they tripped through all over the wilderness, they crossed rivers, they went out and backwards to find these folks that had a disease or sickness or whatever, and treated them And I thought, man, in a way they almost had better care than we do now Absolutely.

Andrew:

I mean, we've gone away from the, from the traveling doctor to the family, to the family doctor, to the house calls and we've become so corporate And it's it's I mean with Obamacare and moving ever closer to just flat out the government taking care of healthcare. Socialized medicine, which is I mean some of these complaints that I'm hearing. That's what we hear in Canada. They have social, it's all free, but they hate their healthcare. It's the worst healthcare anywhere.

Andrew:

Same in the UK It's yeah, it's all free six months to see your doctor, or longer, And so I think we're seeing the creep of socialism even into the medical community. we've got to get more into the, more into freedom. I think any of the the reforms that need to take place need to be rolling back a lot of the craziness, restrictions, and well, I tell you one bill this session we dealt with that.

Jon:

Really I think you know I struggled with and I think a lot of folks did, was a lot of hospitals, when they sign doctors, make them do non-competes. You know, for me I really don't want to tell a business you can't use non-competes. That's their choice. Because I guess in my mind if I'm a doctor and don't want to sign non-competes I'll go somewhere else. But you know it was an interesting debate because you know I mean one example hospital in Fort Wayne. They don't make their doctor sign non-competes and their doctors don't seem to leave that hospital. But a lot of rural Indian hospitals are very concerned about the non competes.

Andrew:

Yeah because they feel like they can't compete with the larger corporations. What about limiting liability insurance or limiting liability claims? Some sort of reform?

Jon:

Yeah, we have not really tackled that, you know this. I mean just the debate on, you know, these non-competes, i mean it really, and it ended up being so watered down I'm not sure it really really worked out. But again, for like me, it's a struggle. You know why do I want to tell a business that you can use non-competes or not. So that's where I was struggling with it. But then when I would talk to you know, folks here back in my district, oh, we need non-competes because we, you know, otherwise we're going to it's going to hurt us. But then, you know, you hear from other rural, like other hospitals in Evansville, they don't, they wanted non-competes to go away. That's interesting Because they have enough. you know what happened is someone would leave one hospital and in their contract and say you have to go 100 miles away to practice, so they'd leave town. So these doctors, you know, now want to go to the hospital down the street. So we do away with non-competes. It makes the two of them pretty, pretty sure.

Jimmy:

In Terre Haute there was a non-compete that was eight miles.

Andrew:

Well, that's not too bad.

Jimmy:

No, I mean, there's a specific reason why it was beyond eight miles And so it was something ridiculous like that. But I, but I do think with the, not with the non-competes, like you said, you don't want to tell them what they need to do. But I do see why those like Fort Wayne and these things there are times when some hospitals, if you have, if they have privileges somewhere and let's say they're on diversion or they're low staffed and you need to get cardiothoracic surgery or whatever it would be, and you got to place six miles up or down the road, whichever way you're looking. I mean, you would like for that surgeon to be able to do it there, yeah, and not be blocked from doing it. But I don't know. It's just. I'm sure there's a lot of opinions on that one. So yeah, it was a big debate.

Andrew:

Yes, all right, are we? are we ready to, we're ready for our?

Jimmy:

for, yeah, let's do our quick and easy random number generator generate a number And I'll tell you who the winner is. Let's see generates. All right, our winner for Instagram. So, if you didn't know, we asked everybody to follow to put two people that they to tag two people. I'm not really good with the Instagram lingo on our Instagram page And our winner is Tricia Larimer.

Intro Music:

All right, yeah, so thank you, tricia.

Jimmy:

We appreciate it And make sure, if you did not get in on this, get it on next one. Tricia gets $25 Amazon card. Yeah, we'll do one.

Andrew:

We'll get that together.

Jimmy:

Yeah, there we go With. John's car will be next. Yeah, he's going to get it.

Jon:

Oh, we have Amazon gift card maybe more.

Jimmy:

Hey, can we ask John about the most recent thing going on in Toronto?

Andrew:

Absolutely. That is the only.

Jimmy:

What about this ISU team? I'm just we were talking about this before. I obviously has nothing to do with it, but Well, we're all written for ISU. We're all written for ISU, absolutely excited about the level they're at right now.

Jon:

And I think it's tomorrow they start.

Andrew:

Best of three, i think, is what I, what I heard. So that's really exciting, but have I assume just it sounds a little bit.

Jimmy:

I mean, i have no problem saying this, that feels.

Andrew:

it feels a little bit like the same attitude of shutting the parents off and making decisions without input. This, this, no community input whatsoever. Put the bid in for hosting and then just decided. You know what. We can't do it And let's blame the Special Olympics.

Jon:

Yeah, I think there might be more collaboration. I don't know. You know all the details were thrown out and seen it. See, it appears they did not talk to the mayor or the visitors Bureau And you know I would like to think our community would have rallied around them and support them. But you know I do appreciate them and you know their efforts to keep supporting Special Olympics, absolutely. We don't want to let that go by the wayside And you know so. But I think we could have, as a community, come together and help out.

Jimmy:

I see you and. Special Olympics, i think we could have figured that out. I think so for sure.

Jon:

And I think that may show you know the kind of disconnect we're seeing, maybe from the university in our town. Well, there's a huge backlash.

Andrew:

That's grown now. So it'll be interesting to see where this goes. I know you know there's always discontent, groups and whatever, but this seems to have united quite a few. I think there's a there's going to be a push to see some change, maybe at the top. So I don't have a dog in the fight, i don't care, but it's going to be interesting kind of fun to watch.

Andrew:

We tend to not comment too much on local issues, local news issues, because by the time this comes out it's three or four days later, And sometimes It's so old? Yeah, it's just like, so this will probably all resolve.

Jon:

I have the feeling this one may be around This one's going to go out.

Andrew:

Well, john, it has been a real pleasure talking to you. Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule and coming here on a weeknight and talking with me and Jimmy. We'll have to do it again soon, but I wanted to end with was it there anything else that you wanted to say? Anything, i mean totally doesn't matter what it is.

Jon:

We covered a lot of ground and I appreciate you guys doing this podcast and including me, and wish you the best of luck moving forward. Thanks, awesome, appreciate it, john.

Andrew:

All right, folks Now, if you're interested in listening, to the show you can email us at dmcsquaredpodcastcom and you spell out squared. I have no idea why. I think the two was taken, but it's dmcsquaredpodcastcom. Please like and share and subscribe to this video. If you're listening to it on audio, please tell your friends about it, and if you want to send us an email that would be greatly appreciated. If it's hate email, Jimmy takes care of that. Yes, I do. And if it's kudos, I'll take care of that and stuff.

Andrew:

So also I want to give contact info for if you want to get ahold of John Ford actually what we will do we will put that in the description of the video. If you want to send him an email, i'm sure he could really use a nice email.

Jon:

Only positive emails Only positive emails, any questions.

Andrew:

One of the things that I really appreciate about John is he has always been accessible. You've always been accessible And open to. I've seen him at forums where you know it's run by a lot of folks who are hostile to the Republicans, hostile to conservatism, and John handles himself well, does a great job with those questions. Sometimes they're not even questions, they're just rants, but he does a great job with them. He's always been accessible And I think that's why, john. I think that's why you keep getting elected by such wide margins. This last margin was pretty big, but when you have an opponent, you still get elected by quite a large margins And I think it's because you're so what is the word I'm looking for?

Andrew:

So connected with your voters, so connected to the constituents and it shows So I appreciate that. All right, folks, that's it for episode 11. See you next time, see ya.

Intro Music:

I got a fire in me. You're gonna set to burn. And we got a world to see and all the time to learn. And we got a world to see and all the time to learn.