Obama orders hospitals to grant same-sex couples visitation

[Pint0 Xtreme]

CNN

Obama orders hospital visit rights for gays, lesbians
[Updated at 7:57 p.m.] The president's memo Thursday notes that "There are few moments in our lives that call for great compassion and companionship that when a loved one is admitted to the hospital ... Yet every day, all across America, patients are denied the kindnesses and caring of a loved one at their sides ..."

Gay and lesbian Americans are "uniquely affected" by the relatives-only policy at hospitals, Obama said, adding that they "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."

The president listed widowers without children and members of certain religious orders among those who suffer under the policy.

[Posted at 7:49 p.m.] President Barack Obama has told the Department of Health and Human Services to establish a rule that would not allow hospitals to deny visitation privileges to gay and lesbian partners.

I had no idea he could do that.

[Temujin]

While I knew about the legal surrogate aspect, I had no idea that barring visitation was that large of a problem. I have not spent a lot of time in hospitals either as a patient or visiting one, but I assumed that friends could easily visit, especially if the patient had cleared them with the staff.

[Gil Hamilton]

Well, he hasn't actually done anything yet. He sent a memo to Health and Human Services, which holds some authority over hospitals that hospitals under that authority have to grant gay people the same visitation rights as straight people. However, as the boss, there is no reason HHS wouldn't comply and make a rule and for hospitals to refuse that rule. This would be better as an executive order, but it's also better than nothing.

[Broomstick]

While I knew about the legal surrogate aspect, I had no idea that barring visitation was that large of a problem. I have not spent a lot of time in hospitals either as a patient or visiting one, but I assumed that friends could easily visit, especially if the patient had cleared them with the staff.

The healthier the patient the more likely friends will be allowed to visit, but most intensive care units I've seen (and given relatives with severe illnesses, I've seen quite a few over the years) have a strict relatives-only policy. Not only that, but immediate family only: spouses, parents, siblings and no one else. So the sickest/most injured/dying are those most affected by this rule. Arguably, they are also the patients who need their loved ones most.

Keep in mind, too, that as a legal spouse it is MUCH harder, almost impossible, for me to be barred from my partner's bedside. At many hospital's non-relative visitation is at the nurses' discretion. Needless to say, unwed homosexual partners run afoul of that far more often than legal spouses. While many nurses and doctors are compassionate and will allow a long-term partner into the room even if not, strictly speaking, in accordance with the rules, there are others who impose their own beliefs/prejudices.

[SirNitram]

The simple and direct answer is: He can do this with every hospital which receives a penny of government cash. Medicare patients? Medicaid patients? Funding from the US? You must comply.

This being said, I suspect we'll see 'straight only' hospitals, much like 'no birth control' pharmacies. Say, you remember them? It'd be understandable if you don't. They're kinda dying. WaPo had a columnist riff a bit off a Virginia one failing.

[Darth Wong]

While I knew about the legal surrogate aspect, I had no idea that barring visitation was that large of a problem. I have not spent a lot of time in hospitals either as a patient or visiting one, but I assumed that friends could easily visit, especially if the patient had cleared them with the staff.

Anderson Cooper interviewed a woman (Janice Langbehn) who had experienced this. She even had a Power of Attorney signed because she anticipated this happening, but the hospital simply ignored it and told her to get lost, and the authorities wouldn't lift a finger to help.

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

It happened in Miami. To this day, they won't even apologize.

[Pint0 Xtreme]

That was the unfortunate case where her partner had died in the hospital without her or her kids by her partner's side. I don't know what I would do if that happened to me. I would have probably lost it.

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

'Losing it' is specifically what the late unlamented policy Obama just fixed was designed to cause. If we have people like that John Smid guy saying suicide is a good scenario for gay kids, who's to say there isn't a few more people who would want to see gay people goaded and driven to violence in order to have the excuse to throw them in prison? Call me extreme or 'assuming bad faith', but these people and their friends like Uganda have repeatedly asserted their desire to KILL us and have tried nearly every chance they got. Why not assume bullying and psychopathic goading with intent to cause distress in these cases?

Bravo Zulu, Barack! It's time these bullies got their attitudes adjusted!

[Tsyroc]

The simple and direct answer is: He can do this with every hospital which receives a penny of government cash. Medicare patients? Medicaid patients? Funding from the US? You must comply.

This being said, I suspect we'll see 'straight only' hospitals, much like 'no birth control' pharmacies. Say, you remember them? It'd be understandable if you don't. They're kinda dying. WaPo had a columnist riff a bit off a Virginia one failing.

Just in case people think that hospitals might choose to just not take government money I thought I'd mention what the CFO of the hospital I work at posted earlier this week in regards to it's finances. 60% of the hospital's income comes from state and federal government. It's a standard, privately owned, public hospital. I suppose there might be a few hospitals out there which might be able to forgo taking government money so they could be dick heads but I don't think there would be many.

I should probably look up what our official polices on visitation rights are. I know that employees can have domestic partners receive benefits (insurance etc..) so I would tend to think the policy should be fairly progressive but that doesn't guarantee that it is.

[Korvan]

I'm wondering how things worked for common-law couples? My wife and myself are legally common-law and here in Canada that grants us pretty much the same rights and responsibilities as a formalized marriage. I'm guessing things are pretty different in the states as I was not permitted to be at the customs desk at the same time as my wife and was told only a "real" spouse could be there. I had to bite back a pretty darn sarcastic reply.