Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/as-costs-rise-businesses-struggle-to-provide-worker-health-insurance Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript In the third and final in a series on health care challenges facing the new administration, Betty Ann Bowser reports on small businesses' struggle to keep up with the rising cost of insuring their employees. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JIM LEHRER: Now, the third and final story in our health care series pegged to the challenges facing the new Congress and the Obama administration.Tonight, Betty Ann Bowser reports from Kansas on the rising burdens for small businesses and their employees. It is the work of the NewsHour Health Unit, a partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. KEN DENTON, Owner, Tillie’s Flower Shop: You know, the great thing about this kind of business is the employees wind up being just like family. BETTY ANN BOWSER, NewsHour Correspondent: Ken Denton's family has been in the flower business for three generations in Wichita, through good times and bad. But this economic downturn has been especially difficult because it's affecting his ability to cover his employees with health insurance.Since the 1990s, Denton has offered a comprehensive plan to which he contributes $80 a month for each employee. The rest of the monthly premiums are paid by his workers.In the past eight years, those premiums for small-business owners like Denton have gone up 129 percent. Add to that the economic downturn, which has thrown his business off 11 percent, and he's worried he won't be able to offer health care much longer. KEN DENTON: I'm concerned about the fact that we're going to have even the dollars to be able to make a contribution, because, when you go through hard times, you know, you've got to keep the purse tight. You've got to watch your expenditures.