The Associated Press had a great story this week about General Motors employees who, rather than lose their jobs and health insurance when their hometown GM plant closed, now commute hundreds of miles to out-of-state plants.

For instance, there's Michael Hanley, of Janesville, Wis., who drives more than 1,000 miles to and from his job in Kansas every weekend. During the week, he shares an apartment with other GM workers. Hanley says he does it so that his wife won't lose her health insurance as she battles a medical condition that will likely evolve into cancer. But the trade-off is being an absentee dad to his kids.

Vignettes about Hanley and the other GM workers who followed their jobs out of town highlight the extraordinary sacrifices people are making to avoid joining the ranks of the unemployed and uninsured.

Read the story here.