Would you pass on insurance costs to employees, or fire somebody?

1. I own a business. We do very well in spite of the economic catastrophe that surrounds us. I provide my employees with a health benefits package. I pay the lion’s share of the premium, they pay a little bit, and the program has a reasonable deductible.
2. It is no secret that providers of insurance or pre payed medical plans are anticipating a dramatic jump in their payouts as a result of the changes in the market place brought about by recent legislation. I have checked around, but no matter where I look, the cost of providing similar coverage to employees is going to increase by an astonishing amount. Add to this the fact that the despised “Bush Tax Cut” is likely to vanish this year, and you have a potential problem with the bottom line.
3. The obvious solution is to increase my prices to my clients/cusomers and/or develop higher value, more expensive products. Neither of these is looking like an option in this economy, and certainly not if banks continue to be reluctant to loan, or if I become cash short for development as I attempt to keep up with insurance costs.
So here are my choices- I could pass through the premium increase to employees, and/or dramatically increase their deductible. Or I could let go of two employees and sort of maintain the status quo regarding insurance.
Most of my employees would begrudgingly accept their cost increases, but I have a couple of employees who are always griping about something, and I know that they would certainly hold a bitch-fest that would never end, and make my life miserable and poison the morale among my other staff if they had to pay more for their insurance. I really do not want to put up with their bullshit. If I get rid of those two, problem solved. But I don’t despise them, and I always feel sort of bad letting people go. I’ll get over it, but it’s still tough to do.
Anyway, that is the story, and I am pretty sure I know what I am going to do.
But, since I am here and you are too, what would you do?