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It's becoming a sad, but all too-common story - small business health insurance is becoming too expensive for business owners, forcing them to either drop coverage, or drop employees.

The recent piece at the Wall Street Journal brings it home even further, with concrete details about real-life business owners who had to cancel their small business health insurance. And, like most employers, they feel awful about it.

One employer, a third-generation business owner of a sheet-metal company, admits to having "a terrible time handling that I can't give them coverage." Another, president of an organizing company, says the decision to cut her small business health insurance plan "was incredibly painful."

But, with health insurance premiums for single workers rising 74% from 2001 to 2008, it comes as no surprise that today only 38% of small businesses can afford to offer coverage.

One option for business owners is to look into a less costly plan that offers a higher deductible and/or cost sharing.

Of course, shifting more of the burden to employees doesn't help their situation either, but offering some form of small business health insurance is always better than offering nothing at all.