1. On December 21, 2004, I posted here at Moorewatch.com about wanting help finding health insurance.

2. I got some health insurance.  Well, at first I got something that was pretty scam-like.  Then I got real insurance, a PPO plan with Anthem Blue Cross.

3. I made a post at my personal blog that it cost a lot but that it was better than what we were paying before.  The same day, I posted an update here at Moorewatch.com

4. In April 2006, during one of our former host’s “crisis” ploys, I found out my health care plan was raising rates.  My mortgage was going up (although that was a planned increase) and JT was milking us dry for server “emergencies.” That post is lost in the big 2006 Data Crash (another JT special) but Variety quoted some of it in an article.

5. On May 1, 2006, I got an anonymous offer to help pay some medical bills and keep the site up.  I was pretty skeptical, but replied in the positive.  Hey, you never know, right?  :)

6. On May 6, the offer was clarified after I mentioned that my premiums were around $1,000 per month.  TOTAL DISCLOSURE TIME: My premiums were actually only $937.75.  I sent my address, even though I thought it had to be something weird.  Again; you never know.  :)

7. A check-like document arrived about a month later.  HERE’S THE PART MANY PEOPLE KEEP SCREWING UP:  I did NOT try to investigate the source of the funds.  I INVESTIGATED THE DOCUMENT TO MAKE SURE IT WAS REAL.  It wasn’t a check.  It was from some company that offers what seemed to be corporate money orders.  I was, of course, afraid it was some kind of check scam and that I would end up in trouble somehow.  I happened to notice that the bank that guaranteed the funds had a lot of locations around Moore’s home and office when I did a search on the name of the issuing bank.  After all, Google offers a maps link when you do searches on businesses, and who doesn’t click on those?  I do all the time.

8. I opened a second account with a full explanation to my bank of where this check/money order came from, and my account supervisor and I monitored the check/money order until the bank was satisfied it was real and had cleared.  Again...here’s where a lot of people keep getting things wrong: AT THIS TIME I ONLY SUSPECTED IT COULD BE MOORE.  I also had two other names that were a possibility (no, those names aren’t anyone’s business).  I suspected it could be Moore A) because of Sicko’s subject matter and B) the locations of the bank and company that issued the document, WHICH POPPED UP IN THE GOOGLE SEARCH OF THE NAME OF THE BANK!

9. I posted a thank you to my “guardian angel” as that is the only “name” I knew for this person.  The woman that made the offer called the donor a angel.  I added the “guardian” part in my reply to her.  This post has also been lost to the great data suckfest courtesy of JT Thompson and E-Places.net, where you should never ever buy hosting.  Ever.  :)

10. A year later - a few days ago in fact - I received an email that stated:

what if, just what if Michael Moore sent you a check for your family’s medical bills??????

you should immediately prepare a quick unpredictable response.

Upon receiving that, I made my first post on this subject here at Moorewatch.com.

11.  The next day, The Daily Mail’s gossip writers wrote a story that mis-characterized the situation, but confirmed that they were told it was Moore who sent the money.

12. The rest of the universe picked up the story.  CNN, Fox, Salon, even Digg, Fark, Reddit, hell even Daily Kos took a shot at me.  I was accused of many things all day, most of them centering around the lie that Moore was trying to keep this quiet.  He wasn’t; IT IS IN THE MOVIE.  That’s not how you keep something quiet and anonymous.  Please let me stress this one more time:  THE FACT THAT HE PAID FOR A YEAR OF MY INSURANCE IS IN SICKO.  He took the film to Cannes already knowing this material was in it.  He took the film to Cannes before I ever got the “whistleblower’s” email.  This is proof positive that he never intended to keep this anonymous.  He’s been planning this for a year.  He says exactly that in his post-screening press conference.

“I went back and forth about whether to use that material,” Moore went on. “I asked myself, would you be doing this if it weren’t in the film? I decided that I would, and I should, and that that’s the way I think we should live.”

13. Mike called me after the film screened, according to reporters at the press conference in Cannes.  In the voice mail he left me, he says the film hadn’t screened yet.  I don’t know which is true.  Here’s the part of the Salon article that has me wondering which it is:

“I want him to know that it was done with all the best intentions,” said Moore, adding that he planned to phone Kenefick personally after the press conference. (According to Kenefick’s blog, Moore left him a voice-mail message later on Saturday.)

That is kind of ambigous, maybe it was a pre-screening press conference.  I don’t know, and wouldn’t trust the reporters to get it right!  :) I know that Moore called me at 9:16 AM my time, which made it 3:16 PM locally in Cannes.

OTHER DETAILS:

At no time was my wife dying, nor is she fully recovered (she is however improving all the time). 

At no time were we EVER denied care, even when we had zero insurance.

At no time did I ever ask readers or a guardian angel to pay for my family’s medical bills.  I was not going bankrupt, I was just really, really broke.  Our family was always going to find a way to pay the medical expenses, even if that meant losing the server that this site, and many other sites, are hosted on.

Most importantly when reading stories about this situation that are not from Moorewatch.com: At no time has anyone who has written about this event ever taken a moment to contact me.  Not one reporter, not one blogger.

Lastly, I have in fact thanked Michael time and time again, and would take this opportunity to do so once more:

Michael Moore: Thank you.  Regardless of all the publicity, the emails, the nonsense that others are adding to this situation, you did in fact help me at a time when I needed it, and I am grateful for that.  Emotionally, I feel like you did something nice.  It doesn’t change how I feel about your work intellectually, but you did do something that truly helped me and my family and for that, I thank you.