Members of the Main Street Alliance, a progressive group representing small-business owners, voiced their anger and anxiety over rising health care costs in a conference call with Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., this afternoon. (National Journal subscribers can read more about the Main Street Alliance here.)

Small-business owners are finding the public option more appealing than ever before, the group said, as they face health insurance rate hikes of 20 percent to 120 percent next year. "We're eating the cost of the increases with about 10 percent of our payroll," said Laurie Pitman, owner of Golden Gate Helicopters in San Jose, Calif., whose current plan under Anthem Blue Cross increased by 25 percent in November.

Pitman, who is proud to offer coverage for her 11 employees, expressed anger over a recent report from Health Care for America Now, the nation's largest health care campaign, that measured a $12.2 billion profit for the biggest health insurance companies in 2009 -- a 56 percent increase from last year.

According to HCAN, insurance companies such as WellPoint, Humana and Cigna Corp. "sailed through the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression" with record profits by increasing costs to policyholders. This rate hike disproportionately burdens small-business owners because of their problems of scale, Blumenauer said.

Forced to absorb annually increasing rates, small-business owners have little option but to cut health care plans, lay off employees or as the members of the Main Street Alliance fear -- close up shop. "We can't compete with national chains," said Virgina Beach restaurant owner, Brian Radford. "These rates just aren't sustainable."

With the support of Blumenauer, the group has written Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., pressing them to pass a health care reform bill that includes the public option. "It's not too late to clean up the Senate bill," Blumenauer said, a task he looks forward to next week once Congress is back in session.