Yes!!!!! "Obama orders hospital visit rights for gays, lesbians"

Sweet.

One more grand step towards equality for all. Next we need the Don't ask, don't tell policy repealed. Then finally gay marriage to be legal in the entire nation.

This has long seemed a no-brainer to me. Someone interviewed responded by saying it was an affront to the definition of family. I can barely make myself see the thought process there.

I can barely make myself see the owners of such thought processes as sane.

I agree with all of you. As for those who say that these basic rights for gays affront the family, far too many of them fail to realize that many gay people form strong family bonds.

Obama's order also forces hospitals to honor individual wishes as to who is allowed to visit. If I put someone's name on a form, I expect the hospital to honor it. Why they wouldn't is beyond me.

Gobama!

a tiny token tidbit in the scheme of human rights.

This morning on NPR, it was noted that when Medicare/Medicaid passed in 1966, LBJ informed hospitals still practicing segregation that they would not be able to treat patients receiving these benefits. At least one hospital, in the middle of the night, shifted patients around, taking them from whites only and blacks only rooms and wards.

well i think it's crazy to think that everybody should be treated with equality and respect



wait, what?

yes.

That's often how human rights grow. Little steps.

The article doesn't say anything about 'only sources' of payment. It says 'all hospitals getting Medicare and Medicaid money honor all patients' advance directives.'

And the reason it had to be done, is that this WASN'T being respected at many hospitals. Perhaps if you had bothered to read a more complete article on the subject you would have seen that.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/04/15/hospital.gay.visitation/index.html

I think it's fair to say two things here:

1, you don't yourself 'know the facts,' and

2, some people just have to be hateful about anything that helps other people, when they personally disdain those people's lifestyle. Which is sad.

Cycloptichorn

That's certainly one word for it.

For those who like to read things for themselves rather than have them interpreted by the media...

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/presidential-memorandum-hospital-visitation

White House

Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
April 15, 2010
Presidential Memorandum - Hospital Visitation

MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

SUBJECT: Respecting the Rights of Hospital Patients to Receive Visitors and to Designate Surrogate Decision Makers for Medical Emergencies

There are few moments in our lives that call for greater compassion and companionship than when a loved one is admitted to the hospital. In these hours of need and moments of pain and anxiety, all of us would hope to have a hand to hold, a shoulder on which to lean -- a loved one to be there for us, as we would be there for them.

Yet every day, all across America, patients are denied the kindnesses and caring of a loved one at their sides -- whether in a sudden medical emergency or a prolonged hospital stay. Often, a widow or widower with no children is denied the support and comfort of a good friend. Members of religious orders are sometimes unable to choose someone other than an immediate family member to visit them and make medical decisions on their behalf. Also uniquely affected are gay and lesbian Americans who are often barred from the bedsides of the partners with whom they may have spent decades of their lives -- unable to be there for the person they love, and unable to act as a legal surrogate if their partner is incapacitated.

For all of these Americans, the failure to have their wishes respected concerning who may visit them or make medical decisions on their behalf has real consequences. It means that doctors and nurses do not always have the best information about patients' medications and medical histories and that friends and certain family members are unable to serve as intermediaries to help communicate patients' needs. It means that a stressful and at times terrifying experience for patients is senselessly compounded by indignity and unfairness. And it means that all too often, people are made to suffer or even to pass away alone, denied the comfort of companionship in their final moments while a loved one is left worrying and pacing down the hall.

Many States have taken steps to try to put an end to these problems. North Carolina recently amended its Patients' Bill of Rights to give each patient "the right to designate visitors who shall receive the same visitation privileges as the patient's immediate family members, regardless of whether the visitors are legally related to the patient" -- a right that applies in every hospital in the State. Delaware, Nebraska, and Minnesota have adopted similar laws.

My Administration can expand on these important steps to ensure that patients can receive compassionate care and equal treatment during their hospital stays. By this memorandum, I request that you take the following steps:

1. Initiate appropriate rule-making, pursuant to your authority under 42 U.S.C. 1395x and other relevant provisions of law, to ensure that hospitals that participate in Medicare or Medicaid respect the rights of patients to designate visitors. It should be made clear that designated visitors, including individuals designated by legally valid advance directives (such as durable powers of attorney and health care proxies), should enjoy visitation privileges that are no more restrictive than those that immediate family members enjoy. You should also provide that participating hospitals may not deny visitation privileges on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. The rule making should take into account the need for hospitals to restrict visitation in medically appropriate circumstances as well as the clinical decisions that medical professionals make about a patient's care or treatment.

2. Ensure that all hospitals participating in Medicare or Medicaid are in full compliance with regulations, codified at 42 CFR 482.13 and 42 CFR 489.102(a), promulgated to guarantee that all patients' advance directives, such as durable powers of attorney and health care proxies, are respected, and that patients' representatives otherwise have the right to make informed decisions regarding patients' care. Additionally, I request that you issue new guidelines, pursuant to your authority under 42 U.S.C. 1395cc and other relevant provisions of law, and provide technical assistance on how hospitals participating in Medicare or Medicaid can best comply with the regulations and take any additional appropriate measures to fully enforce the regulations.

3. Provide additional recommendations to me, within 180 days of the date of this memorandum, on actions the Department of Health and Human Services can take to address hospital visitation, medical decision making, or other health care issues that affect LGBT patients and their families.

This memorandum is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

You are hereby authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register.

BARACK OBAMA

Your response is weak and uncompelling. Your assertions that gays have no problem getting visitation rights do not match the factual accounts of those who have been denied that right in real-world situations. You also mis-read the Medicare part of it but did not acknowledge you were wrong.

I think the truth is quite clear, that you are no more an expert on this issue then you pretend to be on several other issues. Seeing as absolutely nobody is harmed by Obama's order, and many people could be helped by it, there is no reason to be against it at all - other then a personal problem with both the population involved and the person who issued the order. Neither of these problems reflect well upon you as a person.

Cycloptichorn

Well Helen, I didn't graduate from any law school but I did graduate from the 6th grade and it just seems common sense for any hospital to acknowledge every patients right to designate whomever they choose to be their power of attorney/medical proxy Assuming they are adults and of relative sound mind. It just seems to me a matter of simple human rights.

I see those are my only 2 options. Amazing, I know, but I actually do things outside of A2K. I also haven't practiced law in almost 20 years but that's beyond the point. It's like dys said, it's about basic human rights and decency. The law be hanged. I want the people I love with me when I'm ill and hurting. What I do with them, or which body parts I use for that or whether my parts match theirs are absolutely not the hospital's business.

And I bet you want the people you care about to be with you when you're hurting, too. Or do you perhaps just sit in a corner and sulk instead, seeing as that's the only other option out there?