Moore the Single Payer

Jim Kenefick is one of the several making a cottage industry out of hating Michael Moore. He runs Moorewatch.com, so his entire life (online at least) is consumed with the award-winning director.

Well, take a look at this story and see how it clearly illustrates the difference between liberals and conservatives.

Filmmaker Michael Moore has come to the rescue of his harshest critic.

For several years now, Jim Kenefick has been railing against the Oscar-winning director on Moorewatch.com. Recently, Kenefick wrote about the difficulty he was having paying his wife's medical bills. Fellow conservatives guided him toward a cheaper health insurer, but Kenefick said he still had trouble making payments.

"Someone e-mailed me and asked if an 'anonymous' benefactor could offer to pay my first year's premiums - $12,000," Kenefick wrote on his site.

He was skeptical when the check arrived. "I opened a whole new account at my bank, waited for it to clear, checked twice with bank personnel to make sure it wasn't a scam, and waited a full 60 days before spending the money. At that time, I started drawing on it and paying the monthly premiums until it was gone."

We can now confirm to Kenefick that his secret benefactor is none other than the dreaded, detestable, loathsome Michael Moore.

What conservative friends of Kenefick's were willing to do was give him some other options and say "pay the man." YOYO - You're on your own - is the guiding principle there. Not so for Moore.

Moore didn't contact us. We heard it on our own. Yesterday, his reps said they couldn't reach the director, who is in France getting ready for tomorrow's screening at Cannes of his new movie, "Sicko."

One friend of Moore's did say, "We sure are happy Jim's wife received the care she needed."

Kenefick admitted the $12,000 "was like manna from heaven at that time. ... My business was almost dead, my wife was very, very ill, and I was racking up a few little health problems of my own. That money made it possible for us to begin to turn our lives around."

My thoughts about Michael Moore are somewhat conflicted, but there's no doubt that he cannot be beat when it comes to these kinds of matters. A vociferous critic of his was struggling with a problem that is the subject of his next movie. What better way to show how a more rational health care system can lift people up and give them the ability to succeed that to do this? It might be used in the movie, it might not. But it doesn't matter; it's illustrative of his entire point while also being completely disarming.

But get this, Kenefick still isn't happy with Moore.

Having suspected Moore might be his secret patron, he contends that his bete noir made the gift just to publicize "Sicko," which takes aim at America's health-care system and, we've heard, touches upon Moore's covert generosity.

"I knew he was using me," said Kenefick. "Moore is going to try to make me into one of his little puppets."

Kenefick wants it known that "I'm not an idiot. I know when to say yes to something, even if the string attached is obvious. What kind of moron turns down a free 12 grand?"

Does this sound completely bogus to you, or does Kenefick just have Moore on the brain all the time that he would naturally assume that he was the benefactor? And should I admire Kenefick for the fact that his appreciation cannot be bought, or should I consider him maybe the most ungrateful person of all time?

Either way, Moore has done it again. And there's a larger point. A society that's not constantly fretting about how to pay for medical bills is a BETTER SOCIETY, and the "magic benefactor" can easily be a single-payer system that would cost less than we pay for health care now, and provide better quality service. Moore is a genius at finding real-world ways to illustrate his point of view. This is an excellent example.

(h/t Filmick)