By Nina Underman
<[email protected]>

Sophomore Emily Cooprider knows a little more about the current health-care debate than the average high school student. That’s because Emily, whose mom, Liz Cooprider, owns Saddlebrook Golf Course in Indianapolis, has heard her mother talking about the stress of providing health insurance to her six full-time employees in the current economic climate.

Mrs. Cooprider, who has owned Saddlebrook for 15 years, is responsible for purchasing health insurance for her employees and family of four. However, Mrs. Cooprider said rising costs of health care have led to her employees absorbing more of the costs in recent years.

“We’ve had to cut back on what we provide in terms of health insurance for the employees,” Mrs. Cooprider said. “Also, we’ve had to raise the deductible to where it’s almost silly for most employees to even have health insurance because, after they pay the premium and the deductible, it’s not very cost-worthy.”

Small business owners like Mrs. Cooprider are not alone. According to the Obama Administration’s health reform Web site, those like Mrs. Cooprider who purchase insurance through the individual market face deductibles that are two times what those with employee-sponsored insurance plans pay. “In a larger company, like (Eli Lilly & Co.), the workers pay $700 a month in premiums,” Mrs. Cooprider said. “We haven’t paid that in 15 years.”

Maureen “Mo” Merhoff, president of the Carmel Chamber of Commerce, said, via e-mail, that providing affordable health care for employees is one of the biggest challenges facing small businesses here and across the country.

“Obviously, small businesses rely on attracting and keeping the best employees they can find, and insurance packages are increasingly important for employees because they find they cannot afford coverage on their own,” Merhoff said. “(Regarding the proposed health care legislature,) small businesses are hoping for whatever solution will offer them more affordable ways to insure their employees.”

For Mrs. Cooprider, the ideal solution would allow her to join with other like-businesses to purchase a private insurance plan as a group, rather than individually.

“If 20 small golf courses were able to go in together to buy health insurance for 100 people instead of each business having to buy a plan to cover six people, it would be much less expensive,” Mrs. Cooprider said.

“I think for the quality of health care that we’re used to in this country, we’re going to have to stay a private system, but reform is absolutely needed,” she said. “For small businesses, the price of health care has just skyrocketed. It’s ridiculous.”