Nappanee Advance-News, Volume 135, Number 1, Nappanee, Elkhart County, 7 January 2016 — Page 2
Advance News • Thursday, January 7,2016
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Manna nautman Dec. 30, 2015 ETNA GREEN Martha Kaufman, 75, of Etna Green, died at 1:40 a.m., Wednesday, Dec 30,2015 at her residence. Arrangements are with Thompsort-Lengacher k Yoder Funeral Home, Nappanee.
New year, new you? By David M. Palmer Assistant Editor ’✓ ... I ■ - ; • ■ NAPPANEE At midnight on Dec. 31 the ball drops, champagne bottles pop and happy partiers toast to a new year. But something else usually happens when the calendar turns over: The start of another season of New Year's resolutions. But some studies now suggest that, despite the number of Americans that make New Year's resolutions each year, a small percentage actually accomplish their goals by the following December. Pointing to lofty goals and ill-defined resolutions as reasons for failure, research indicates that simplicity might be the key to sticking to a New Year's plan. According to a study done by The University of Scranton, research suggests that only 8 percent of the nearly 1.4 million Americans who make a New Year's resolution will achieve their goal. The study looked at the top 10 most popular New Year's resolutions—which included losing weight, organizing better and spending less money—and analyzed the reasons why people so often fail to complete their missions before the start of the next year. The findings show that, despite a genuine wish to accomplish their goals, people regularly give up on New Year's resolutions because they are too broad in their scope or too vague to work toward effectively.
Research maintains that making a simple goal for the new year will ensure that it is easier to stick to. A 'laundry list' of goals for the next 365 days might seem like a doable thing with the amount of time available in a new year, but multiple targets are harder to hit, according to Foibes.com, which also studied the achievement rates of New Year's resolutions. Instead, researches and social scientists suggest that New Year's resolution makers focus on one simple, reasonably attainable goal rather than multiple goals. - But for Indiana University Student Brooke Bahr, keeping a New Year's resolution is literally as easy as reading a book or, maybe, as easy as reading 13 books. "My New Year's resolution is to read 13 books in 2016," Bahr said. "I got that from Tim Challies, who is a blogger. Xhat<is.only his light reading challenge, and my cousin got mHci-dpttbecause she » doing ~~~~ h ?7 ,Gh#llie9*;!#ho blogs for the popular literaturewebsite Goodreads.com, issued a challenge on his blog for visitors to read as much as possible in the new year. According to recent studies, Challies's challenge is a feasible goal, as it is simple and clearly defined: read 13 books, or fail. And that is where the problems arise for most people. New Year's goals that are too ambiguous or overly ambitious have less a chance of being accomplished. So, as Challies and other's research shows, it is a better idea for New Year's resolutionists to set goals they can track and follow with ease rather than plan big and end up failing or giving up. As Bahr said of herself and her New Year's goal, it is easier to accomplish something when it is already a part of who you are and what you do. "1 read a lot already," Bahr said. "I just want to read more and this is a good reason to do it. It's the lightest load of reading he suggests, so it shouldn't be too hard." Whatever your goal may be, keeping it simple and making it a part of your daily routine will result in a better outcome, according to the experts.
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Community
Nappanee plans for 2016
By David M. Palmer Assistant Editor NAPPANEE The first day of 2016 saw some big changes in Nappanee with the swearing-in of a new mayor and new city coundlmen, but bigger things are on the horizon. Water treatment upgrade In the first quarter of 2016, the city of Nappanee aims to tackle the biggest project in the city's history. The United States Environmental Protection Agency mandated that the city of Nappanee separate its sewer system, as currently the city has a combined sewer. In a combined sewer, all sanitary sewer water and storm runoff water go into the same pipework, a process that the EPA no longer allows, according to Mayor Phil Jenkins. "Right now all of our overflow water runs into the same pipe," Jenkins said. "In heavy rain events, all of that water overflows into the ditch. So we are doing is we are collecting that water from large rain events and treating it before it goes back into the ditch." The pipe that will collect the water will run from the west side of Nappanee all the way to the water treatment plant. The city hopes to solidify a bid on the project in the first quarter of the new year, with construction hoped to begin in the summer of 2016. The project is projected to cost $29 million. Vibrant Communities According to Jenkins, Elkhart County also has a masterplanning project, called 'Vibrant Communities', in the works for 2016. The 'Vibrant Communities' initiative is a Elan for the local governments to meet with residents. The ope for the plan is that the cities of Elkhart County can invest in the kinds of projects that will afford the best quality of life to residents. The 'Vibrant Communities' plan will have an official kick-off at the Lemer Theatre—4lo South Main Street, Elkhart—on Jan. 26 from 4-6 p.m. After the Jan. 26 kick-off, the project will move forward to holding focus groups in each of the Elkhart County communities, giving residents an opportunity to voice their opinions and suggest plans for the project to tackle. New mayor, high hopes According to recently-elected mayor Jenkins, he has high hopes for his turn as mayor of Nappanee. Following the long tenure of popular mayor and Nappanee staple Larry
Thinking about health: Can shopping for health services really bring down costs?
By Trudy Lieberman Rural Health News Service Early in December David, a reader who lives in the foothills west of Denver, sent me an email. "It's spry when you go into any healthcare facility and don't know whether to bring your check book, loan application papers, or bankruptcy processing papers," he said. "Nobody seems to care or be concerned about it." He wanted to know why we aren't told all costs up front so we can make informed decisions. David had a point. When we go in for a procedure, most of the time we don't know the total price or even what we will pay after insurance covers its share. In the last few years the lack of transparency has provided opportunities for entrepreneurs to create websites aimed at giving patients some price information for the handful of procedures that you can actually shop for. But it's one tning to shop for a low-cost stress test or a spinal X-ray. It's a lot trickier when you need heart by-pass surgery or a back operation. I am all for price transparency that sheds light on our high-cost health system, and I want it to spark a serious conversation about why we have the most expensive care in the world and what we as a country can do about it. But don't count on turning patients into consumers who can force prices down and magically give us cheaper health care. That's a lot harder than something like boycotting the local Ford dealer in favor of the Chevy dealer who offers rock bottom prices. The fundamental relationship between patients and their doctors is
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of mayot and I think the first thing I have to do is to start listening to those that put me here. I have to listen to them and start looking for solutions to any issues we may have." Todd Nunemaker, return-
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different from the relationship between buyers and sellers of cars and other consumer goods. Patients have to trust their health care providers since it's hard to judge the proposed care or treatments unless you have a medical degree. For most other products, the admonition "buyer beware" is at the heart of the relationship. Furthermore, shoppers generally have an idea of what makes a good car, and can more easily judge if the seller is giving them one. If you buy a bad car, you live with it for a while and try not to make the same mistake again. If you pick the wrong imaging center or the wrong doctor, you could die or suffer serious harm. Tne stakes simply are higher. In the last couple of weeks I came across another barrier to price shop-ping-marketing activities by pharmaceutical companies. Those activities are designed to help patients pay for their expensive prescriptions while at the same time keeping the underlying price of the drugs high. An e-book I found on the website of "Medical Marketing k Media," a trade publication, advises healthcare sellers how to market their products. This book, titled "Pathway to Specialty Access," offers instructions to drug companies for using coupon programs to sell more drugs particularly the new, very costly specialty drugs and how to stop customers from not filling their prescriptions because they are too expensive. That's apparently a big problem in the drug business. Those coupons available online or from doctors and pharmacies offer discounts on medicines especially those with high price tags like the new spe-
ing Ist district council member, was sworn in as the deputy mayor. to tne common council were Kimberly Ingle, formerly the clerk-treasurer for over 34 years, of the 2nd district and Dana Hollar of
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Photo/ David Palmer Newly elected mayor Phil Jenkins poses for a photo in his new office. Jenkins has already begun plans to maximize Nappanee's potential in 2016, starting with a $29 million sewer system upgrade slated to begin in summer 2016.
Thompson, Jenkins said he only hopes to do as great a job in the office as Thompson. Complementing the state in which Thompson has left the city, Jenkins said that following Thompson's long career is both a pro and a con. "The great thing about following Larry Thompson, who was mayor for 20 years, is that he has left the city in great shape," Jenkins said. "He has set up the city well for the future both financially and with the chamber of commerce. The con is that he was a great mayor for 20 years. That can be a hard act to follow." Jenkins also noted that Nappanee plans to use all of its new additions to full-effect in 2016. Be it the new pavilion in downtown Nappanee, or the addition of new council members Kim Ingle and Dana Hollar, Nappanee intends to maximize its potential in the next 365 days, according to Jenkins.
dalty drugs coming on the market. One example notes that a patient's out-of-pocket costs for multiple sclerosis or rheumatoid arthritis drugs could be as little as $5 a prescription thanks to coupons and discounts. It could be hundreds of dollars without them. Other coupons take the form of e-vouchers. A pharmacist sends a prescription to a vendor. The drug makers ana the vendors establish how much they will cover of the costs insurance requires the patient to pay. While the process is going on, the patient "doesn't know what ne will pay," says Andrew Pollpeter, a senior principal with The Amundsen Group, a pharmaceutical consulting firm. "But they are happier when they see a lower copay," he added. What's wrong with this? After all, the patient gets cheap medicine; the drug company gets more sales. The high drug prices, however, are still with us. "Coupons shield consumers from the true cost of medications, and (consumers) are less likely to make decisions based on the true cost of the drug," says Troy Filipek, an actuary with the consulting firm Milliman. In short, discounts mask what the drug maker is really charging. And that, of course, means all the advice about price shopping goes out the window. At least when it comes to medicines, lots of middlemen are involved in what drugs you get and how much they cost. There's nothing transparent aboiit drug pricing, and there's not likely to be. What's been your experience with shopping for health care? Write to 7h idy at [email protected]
the 4th district. Hollar served on the Nappanee police force for 27 years before retiring. Hollar said that he is exited to get to work in his new position. "You know, I was only retired for two years," Hollar said. "I ran for city common council because I
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wanted to keep giving back to this community, I wanted to keep serving the public here in Nappanee. Sitting at home wasn't for me." Kathy Brown has taken over the position of derktreasurer and was officially sworn in as well.