Small Business Owners Talk Obamacare On HuffPost Live (VIDEO)

In 2010, Republicans said Obamacare would hurt small businesses.

In advance of the presidential debates, HuffPost Live checked in with a group of business owners and one small business advocate to see what they had to say about the looming changes to health care law.

Of the 28 million small business owners in America, 22 million are self-employed, said Rhett Buttle of Small Business Majority, a San Francisco-based nonprofit advocacy group. “Now that pre-existing conditions are illegal it is a huge boon to the entrepreneurship community,” Buttle noted. “We hear from self-employed entrepreneurs all the time who are very grateful for the new healthcare law.”

David Greenspon, the president and owner of Competitive Edge Advertising, a 155-person company, does not share that gratitude. “We’re seeing more and more burdens placed on the backs of small businesses that have carried their load quietly for the last several decades,” Greenspon said. “When you have over 50 employees the full burden of that insurance is on your shoulders.”

Greenspon’s sentiment echoes that of most small business owners in the U.S., according to a recent survey released by Deloitte. About two-thirds of companies with 50-100 employees said the Affordable Care Act, upheld by the Supreme Court in June, is a “step in the wrong direction,” compared to 57 percent of employers with more than 2,500 employees who said the same.

Still, there are some business owners out there who refuse to drop coverage for their employees, despite the potential of increasing costs, HuffPost reported in June.

Watch the video above to see small business owners talk Obamacare on HuffPost Live.