The road to healthcare reform took a hard left turn recently.

The leaders of both the House and the Senate announced that they would bring bills with a public option to the floors of both chambers for a vote.

The announcement by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) was no surprise, as all previous House versions included a public option. But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) caught many off guard with his plan, which came despite the Senate Finance Committee's rejection of the public option.

Among other provisions of the nearly 2,000-page bill, Pelosi's plan creates a public option that pays medical providers rates negotiated by the secretary of Health and Human Services and expands government spending on the Medicaid program. The speaker intends to have a vote on the House bill soon. But the real battle will come later in the Senate.

As I write, details of the Senate proposal are sketchy, but it's clearly designed to appease Senate liberals. It would be a national, government run program that would negotiate payment rates with doctors, hospitals and other health care providers.

In an attempt to gain moderate senators' support, Sen. Reid's proposal would allow states to opt out of the government program at some point, which hasn't been determined. Sen. Reid's attempts to appeal to the left wing while also keeping his moderates happy may well backfire. Two prominent centrists, Sens. Joe Lieberman (Conn.) and Olympia Snowe (Maine), have already come out against his public option proposal, and concerns have been raised by others such as Sens. Evan Bayh (Ind.), Mary Landrieu (La.) and Blanche Lincoln (Ark.).

The opt-out, as outlined by Sen. Reid, comes with a high price tag in terms of access and affordability. In an effort to coerce states to remain part of the government run public option, the opt-out is all or nothing. If your state decides not to participate in the public plan, then your state may forfeit opportunities to access other private market solutions. This isn't providing states or small business owners with more choices. Instead, it's saying take the government plan, or risk leaving all the other options at your state line.

In addition, if you optout as a state, you'll still be paying - and paying and paying. So, while an optout provision may sound good, in the end, we'll all still be paying for it. Why? Because even if a state opts out of the program, it appears likely that all taxpayers will be on the hook to pay for it, whether it's financing subsidies or simply the long-term costs of running yet another complex bureaucracy.

States don't need a public option to spur competition. They need a reformed marketplace where all private insurers have incentives to compete. The public option doesn't lead to more competition, but it does set up perverse disincentives that will further stifle the private-market competition that small business owners have fought for all these years.

Reform for the sake of reform is not what small business wants or needs. Instead, they want access to a reformed private marketplace with lower costs, more affordable options and real competition for their health care dollars.

That is the message small business owners have shared throughout the health reform debate, and it's the same message they took to the White House recently in a meeting with the president.

Small business owners hope that the White House and Congress will remember that new public programs - however couched as a "consumer choice option" or with "opt out" ability - are still costs that will ultimately come out of their pockets and prohibit them from growing, investing in their business and hiring new employees.

We have said repeatedly that we remain committed to trying to support reform efforts that will provide more affordable and accessible health care options for small employers and their workers. No one needs reform more. But in the end, small businesses' support or opposition will rest on whether or not they're persuaded that costs will actually be reduced, and the quality of their health care will not be compromised.

Dan Danner is president and CEO of the National Federation of Independent Business in Washington, D.C.