Perhaps you liked Michael Moore's Sicko ... or maybe you had an issue with the way he seemed to contrive situations. Regardless, one has to admit it was a compelling story. If you would like to see a more measured and journalistic approach, check out the Frontline Documentary Sick Around the World by T.R. Reid who uses his many years as an International Correspondent to produce a far more compelling indictment of the US healthcare system by comparing it to the the systems of 5 capitalist countries, Great Britain, Germany, Switzerland, Japan and Taiwan (ROC.)

Watch here.

John Mathson had been paying about $550 a month to continue his health insurance coverage after the 63-year-old Eureka man got laid off in October after 39 years at the Evergreen Pulp mill. 

For Mathson, who is undergoing chemotherapy for non-Hodgkin lymphoma and had knee surgery in September, the news got worse last week. The mill, which shut down, informed him it could no longer afford to offer health or welfare programs to any employees or retirees as of Jan. 1.

Two years short of Medicare eligibility and beset by health problems, Mathson's options for health care are limited and expensive.

"There is insurance out there, but they're like $1,000 a month and they don't pay anything to speak of," said Mathson, whose wife receives coverage through Medicare due to a disability. "You still have to come up with all this money out of your pocket. You're basically left out there, high and dry."

With the recession and the expectation that job losses will get worse next year, a growing number of American workers will find themselves not only out of a job, but without access to affordable health coverage. Already, about 46 million Americans have no health insurance.

Last month, U.S. employers slashed 533,000 jobs - the most in 34 years - as unemployment rose to a 15-year high of 6.7 percent. In California, the jobless rate rose to 8.4 percent in November, the third-highest in the country, with cuts in nonfarm payroll positions of 41,700, according to the state Employment Development Department.

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