Dr. Kenny Stall has entered the race to be the Democratic candidate for the fifth Congressional District. He has been serving the citizens of the fifth District who reside in Shelby, Johnson, Marion, and Southern Hancock counties. As an obstetrician and gynecologist he has firsthand experience with the concerns of health care accessibility, quality, transparency, bureaucracy, and cost.

His unique background combines not only his knowledge of direct patient care but that of legislative issues, goals, projections, and costs as they relate to our national health care crisis. With health insurance premiums rising four times faster than wages along with increasing co-pays and deductibles access to quality health care is being threatened for many of our citizens. This comes on top of the knowledge that the government run Medicare program is underfunded by at least $30 trillion dollars.

Dr. Stall wishes to champion changes within the health care payment system that will assure access, fiscal responsibility, and fairness. To accomplish this he has proposed the development of behavior related health-care funds to supplement the insurance and entitlement systems. By selecting those illnesses and injuries which are specifically related to behaviors of choice for separate funding the remaining health care costs become a true reflection of the shared unpredictable risk. With the removal of the behavior related illnesses and injuries the individual insurance premium for the remaining shared health risks is lowered improving the ability of individuals and businesses to participate in the insurance pool and decreasing the burden on our underfunded Medicare system.

Dr. Stall also wishes to champion changes within our tax system. He believes that personal industry should be encouraged and rewarded. Presently, individuals who demonstrate the fortitude to tackle a second job in order to better provide for their family, face a tax penalty for working harder. He believes that those individuals willing to take on a second job above their first full time position should not be penalized by advancing into a higher tax bracket. They should instead have the second job taxed separately in a bracket that is half of what they pay for their first full time employed position.

His third focus is to encourage the wider adaption of the technological advances which permit higher education to reach into the homes of the student. The rising cost of higher education disadvantages many of our citizens which in turn disadvantages our competitiveness. By expanding the use of the available electronic interconnectivity, more of our citizens will have the chance to achieve a college education at a much lower cost, on their schedule thus allowing them to continue to provide for their families.

The present Democratic candidates for president have both promised changes in our health care system. They need the help and insight of those who are experienced in the actual delivery of health care. With only 1% of those in Congress having any health care background, it is imperative that we send such individuals to Congress. Dr. Stall is such an individual having served as a trustee of the Indiana State Medical Association, on the Commission on Excellence in Health Care subcommittee on Patient Safety, the state Maternal Mortality Committee, as past president of the American Society of Forensic Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and is a current member of the Indiana Health Information Exchange Board, which is nationally recognized for achieving electronic interconnectivity between the central Indiana hospitals.

His expertise in this critical area will not go unnoticed by the voting Republicans who are critical to the November election. The importance of the health care problem is recognized by Republican voters and they will predictably find him the most acceptable Democratic candidate.