Published: June 04, 2009 06:35 am      

Mongiardo likes 'medical Internet'

Says it's key to health-care reform

Ashland — Kentucky Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo said Wednesday he believes the creation of a network where medical providers can more readily share information with one another is “the foundation” to reforming the health care system in Kentucky and nationwide.

Such a system, which Mongiardo said would be akin to “a medical Internet,” would lower health care costs by eliminating unnecessary tests and paperwork, thereby streamlining the system dramatically and reducing the possibility of medical errors, he said.

Mongiardo also said he believed establishment of such a system in Kentucky could serve as a model for the rest of the country to follow, and could give the state a huge edge in attracting new jobs and new industry.

“If we lower the cost of health care in Kentucky first, we can compete for any kind of job,” he said.

Mongiardo, a surgeon from Hazard and an announced Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate seat currently occupied by Republican Jim Bunning, talked about health care, his decision to enter the Senate race and other issues during a meeting Wednesday with The Independent’s editorial board.

He said his decision to run for Senate — a race he narrowly lost to Bunning in 2006 — was motivated largely by his desire to fix the health care system, which he said was the key to repairing the struggling U.S. economy.

“Health care is not an island. It doesn’t stand alone,” he said. “We can’t have a stable economy until we have a stable health care system. It’s all linked together.”

Mongiardo said other initiatives he planned to push if elected to the Senate included reducing America’s dependence on foreign oil through the use of Kentucky coal, pre-kindergarten education programs, or “cradle schools,” and promoting the commonwealth as a leading destination for “adventure tourism.”

He said he had been passionate about those issues throughout his political career, first in the state Senate and then the office of lieutenant governor.

Mongiardo said he believed coal could be most valuable in weaning the nation from its foreign oil addiction by liquefying it and using it as motor fuel. Liquefied coal, he said, can be refined into diesel fuel, gasoline and jet fuel.

“We ought to be shifting our demand for coal from (electricity) to propulsion,” he said.

Mongiardo also said projects such as the new Midwestern Biofuels LLC facility at South Shore, which is producing fuel pellets for power plants using miscanthus grass, fit perfectly with his plan for energy independence.

Mongiardo is one of three declared candidates for the 2010 Senate race. Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway and customs agent Darlene Fitzgerald Price also have said they’re running.

A poll recently released by Mongiardo’s campaign showed the lieutenant governor with a double-digit lead over Conway. However, Conway’s camp has questioned the poll’s methodology.

On the Republican side, Bunning is being challenged in the primary by Todd County businessman Bill Johnson and retired engineer Roger Thoney. Secretary of State Trey Grayson and Bowling Green optometrist Rand Paul, son of former GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul, have formed exploratory committees, but have said they won’t run unless Bunning drops out.

State Senate President David Williams also has expressed interested in the GOP Senate primary.

KENNETH HART can be reached at khart@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2654.