Prayers for Mark Part 3

[xtrain]

Article in the TT today.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/ ... 2003359359

please take a minute and push some positive thoughts (or more) in the direction of mark and his family ...

Moderator's note: At 31 pages this thread was once again becoming unwieldy, so we now go into Part 3 of the Prayers for Mark thread. Please continue here...If you'd like some reference to the Part 2 thread, please look here.

I split the thread here because the Taipeitimes article seemed most relevent. Note that the link above is no longer working, as the Taipeitimes pulled the original article after protests from Mark's sister that many of her comments were taken out of context.

[irishstu]

article in the TT today.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/ ... 2003359364

please take a minute and push some positive thoughts (or more) in the direction of mark and his family ...

Shit, that story is pretty sad. Real bummer about the Medical Insurance running out in October.

To all of Mark's family and friends (including Mark, obviously), I hope you manage to find a way through this.

[jdsmith]

Though he has resided in Taiwan for 16 years and his wife and children are Taiwanese, Selikoff isn't eligible to receive local medical insurance beyond October, Rachael said.

This is because Selikoff never applied for permanent residency and cannot obtain "handicapped status" as a severely brain-damaged foreigner.

My ARC is up next month. I am SO applying for permanent residency.

It's a shame that Mark didn't, but christ, you'd think the government officials would make an exception...dolts.

I saw and spoke with Rachel last week at the fund raiser. Mark IS making progress, but there's not much if anything he personally can do to alleviate his cashflow woes.

It probably won't do much good, but I'm glad that the "stars" have been singled out for being shitheads. You don't make a promise like that and then forget about it.

And for the rest of us longtermers, get the permanent residency ARC when you can. You never know. And it's absolutely heartbreaking to see Mark's wife and two kids and imagine what they're going through.

They need a lawyer.

[sandman]

He surely had a JFRV though? That would make him eligible, wouldn't it?

[maoman]

Why does the article mention his "aboriginal" wife? How is that relevant to anything?

[sandman]

It's the TT. Why on earth would you expect relevance?

[jdsmith]

It probably won't do much good, but I'm glad that the "stars" have been singled out for being shitheads. You don't make a promise like that and then forget about it.

I regret making this comment. From what I know, none of the "celebrities" has been in to visit Mark in a long time.

A little bird has informed me though that a LOT of money has been donated to Mark's cause, and not all of it has come from the fundraisers.

My sincere apologies. I should not have written that.

This is just a terribly painful situation that seems to keep getting worse for the big guy and his family.

Again, my apologies.

jds

[cranky laowai]

My ARC is up next month. I am SO applying for permanent residency.

It's a shame that Mark didn't, but christ, you'd think the government officials would make an exception...dolts.

Yeah, it's easy to think that ARCs and so-called permanent residency exist to codify the rights of people who have earned them. That would, after all, be the decent thing for the government to do.

But officials here all too often treat applications for renewal or upgrading of status in Taiwan as opportunities to find excuses to rid the island of any foreigners who, in the eyes of the officials, cease to be an asset to the island. Thus, for example, a medical exam is imposed upon people applying for PR despite the fact that they've been living here for years and had to pass one earlier to receive an ARC. The purpose of this is damn sure not to help see that foreigners with problems receive proper medical care here.

I've decided, too, that the time has come for me to jump through all those extra hoops for PR.

[jlick]

He surely had a JFRV though? That would make him eligible, wouldn't it?

Yeah, I'm quite surprised about this as well. I've gone through the NHI Act and don't see why having an APRC or not would make a difference. In fact, the "Enforcement Rules of the NHI Act" specifically states that the ARC and APRC are equivalent under the Act. The only special rules applicable to foreigners are those in regard to qualification after arriving (may need to wait 4 months in some cases) and what happens after leaving. I don't see anything specific to foreigners which would cause coverage to lapse if they don't leave the country. Anyone know more details about why he's going to lose coverage?

[Mr He]

is it possible to launch an administrative complaint on behalf of Mark?