Business owners have a lot at stake in the healthcare reform debate. Coverage mandates and additional taxes are just some of the points for discussion in Washington, but the big issue for most businesses in Raleigh is cost.

Jeff Hatley, of Excel Moving and Storage, said healthcare coverage costs have doubled for his company since 2000.

"We shop around yearly," he said. "It's gotten so out of hand, we have to constantly go out into the market and see what we can do to control those costs."

Billie Redmond, CEO of Coldwell Banker Commercial Properties, said her company has provided health insurance to employees for 25 years.

"As a small business owner, my concern is how we continue to sustain our business and yet provide the very best care that we can for our employees," she said.

Healthcare policy and potential reforms were the subject of a chamber forum Friday. Panel member Blue Cross and Blue Shield CEO Bob Greczyn said current reform drafts still don't address the needs of small business because they exempt many smaller employers.

"The majority of people who are uninsured work," he said. "And they work for businesses with fewer than 25 employees. Even the best of the bills still leaves about 17 million people uninsured in 2019."

Greczyn has been one of North Carolina's most outspoken critics of a government-run health insurance plan. He said that while government intervention is needed to get reform underway, it doesn't need to be the solution as well. 

"When the basis of competition is innately unfair, and not on a level playing field, that's not really competition," said Greczyn. "That's really an effort to move toward a government-run healthcare system."  Click on the extra video link above to hear more of the interview with Bob Greczyn.

While lawmakers haggle over the particulars of reform - especially who will foot the bill - Hatley says businesses like his already are paying for the uninsured and underinsured, as well as their own employees.

"We need to take care of our employees," he said. "If we take care of our employees, they're going to take care of our customers."