The more business leaders and owners know, the more they want little to do with ObamaCare.

The Affordable Care Act, as Obamacare is formally known, requires individuals to have health insurance starting Jan. 1, 2014. It requires businesses with more than 50 employees to provide health insurance beginning in 2015, but businesses that enroll in the Obamacare exchange in 2014 will have to choose from the policies listed, which may be more expensive than those offered by private exchanges.

Individuals and employers that do not buy health insurance will pay a fine, enforced by the IRS through income tax returns. The fines help fund tax credits for those buying health policies on the Obamacare health exchanges and pay for unreimbursed emergency health care for the uninsured.

“In a nutshell, the more businesses learn, the more uncertain and, for lack of a better word, the more scared they are of the bill,” Salamido said.

So the Chamber is looking for solutions at the state level.

“Groups may come together to offer private exchanges to give people options, to give small businesses options in the interim. At least at that juncture there will be something available to them that gives different affordability levels for those plans,” Salamido said.

A private exchange would let employers make “independent decisions based upon what’s available in the marketplace” and is more affordable than Obamacare for their situation, Salamido said.

About half a dozen private health insurance exchanges sell plans in North Carolina, said Sam Gibbs of eHealthInsurance.com, the pioneer of electronic health insurance marketplaces.

The reality of the government takeover of health insurance and health care delivery is sinking in as the Oct. 1 implementation of the health exchanges nears.

As we know, ObamaCare sticker shock awaits many.

Individual health insurance premiums in North Carolina would spike as much as 80 percent on average due to the effects of Obamacare mandates if plans submitted by Blue Cross Blue Shield North Carolina receive federal approval as expected.

Younger, healthy consumers representing one-third of individual policy holders would bear disproportionately “substantial increases” to offset the costs of insuring older, less healthy populations and the requirements of the Affordable Care Act, BCBSNC officials acknowledged.