Post by Tim Collins on Apr 16, 2010 7:04:23 GMT -7
I really do not understand why anyone would object to this, or why it appears to have taken a Presidential order to see that this happens.
Obama orders most hospitals to grant gays visitation rights
Same-sex partners must get the same privileges granted heterosexual couples in hospitals that get Medicare or Medicaid funds, he says in a memo.
By Christi Parsons and Kathleen Hennessey
www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-gay-couples-hospitals16-2010apr16,0,7453911.story
April 16, 2010
Reporting from Washington
President Obama late Thursday ordered most hospitals in the country to grant the same visitation rights to gay and lesbian partners that they do to married heterosexual couples.
In a memo to his Health and Human Services agency, Obama ordered the secretary to ensure that all hospitals getting Medicare and Medicaid money honor all patients' advance directives, including those designating who gets family visitation privileges.
The order also requires that documents granting power of attorney and healthcare proxies be honored, regardless of sexual orientation. The language could apply to unmarried heterosexual couples too.
The presence of loved ones is more important during a hospital stay than at any other time, Obama wrote in his memo. Yet widows and widowers with no children are often denied the "support and comfort of a good friend," he said, as are members of religious orders.
"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," he wrote.
In recent months, some leaders in the gay community have grown tired of waiting for the Democratic president to act on their issues since he took office more than a year ago.
But Obama has begun a steady campaign to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding gays and lesbians serving in the military. And his memo on hospital visitation rights touches on an issue of long-standing concern for gays and lesbians and their families.
(Why in the world is he not simply issuing a directive to abolish "don't ask don't tell. Truman integrated the military by fiat - despite the state of race relations in his era. Obama should stick to his rhetoric of being above politics and just get this done.)
Although it is not one of the more controversial items on gay activists' agenda, the visitation issue could still inspire a political fight. One conservative thinker said late Thursday that the memo undermines the definition of marriage and represents government intrusion into healthcare.
(Whom ever this "conservative thinker" is he/she isn't much of a thinker. The right to free association is not a gift from the government it is an inalienable right. True conservatives - politically - should applaud this step and support gay marriage, the government should not be in the business of defining marriage, hell it should not be in the marriage business.)
The Obama memo is inspired in part by the case of Janice Langbehn, who was kept from seeing her partner, Lisa Pond, as she slipped into a coma. Last September a federal judge rejected Langbehn's lawsuit against Florida's Jackson Memorial Hospital, saying there was no law requiring the staff to grant Langbehn access to Pond's bedside.
After signing the memo, Obama called Langbehn from Air Force One, according to a statement issued by Lambda Legal, which represented Langbehn in court.
"It was very rewarding to hear, 'I'm sorry,' from the president, because that's what I have wanted to hear from Jackson Memorial since the night Lisa died," Langbehn said in the statement. "I hope that taking these steps makes sure that no family ever has to experience the nightmare that my family has gone through."
Late Thursday, conservative leaders were just learning of the memo.
Peter Sprigg, senior fellow for policy studies at the conservative Family Research Council, said his organization doesn't object to people conferring a healthcare proxy or power of attorney on anyone they wish.
"But in its current political context, President Obama's memorandum clearly constitutes pandering to a radical special interest group," he said. "The memorandum undermines the definition of marriage, and furthers a big-government federal takeover of even the smallest details of the nation's healthcare system."
This has nothing to do with "a big-government federal takeover of even the smallest details of the nation's healthcare system.", it is recognition of an individual right of free association. If our system not only allows the communist party of the USA or the Nazi Party of the USA to host public rallies, but provides police protection at such events - why in hell should an ill or dying patient not be allowed to designate whomever they wish to visit them in the hospital.
But Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, said she hoped there would not be a furious fight over the move. Some people who oppose gay marriage or the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" have a different view on hospital visitation, she said.
"There may be challenges to it," she said. "But what we have seen across the country is that, no matter how people feel about same-sex marriage, people are overwhelmingly supportive of a person's ability to have their loved ones around them at times of crisis. . . . No one wants to be alone in a hospital."
Several states, including California, give some hospital rights to gays and lesbians. North Carolina recently gave patients the right to designate visitors whether visitors are legally related to the patient or not. Delaware, Nebraska and Minnesota have similar laws.
In his memo, Obama told HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to "expand on these important steps."
"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," Obama said. "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 . . . help communicate patients' needs."
cparsons@latimes.com
khennessey@tribune.com
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times
Obama orders most hospitals to grant gays visitation rights
Same-sex partners must get the same privileges granted heterosexual couples in hospitals that get Medicare or Medicaid funds, he says in a memo.
By Christi Parsons and Kathleen Hennessey
www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-gay-couples-hospitals16-2010apr16,0,7453911.story
April 16, 2010
Reporting from Washington
President Obama late Thursday ordered most hospitals in the country to grant the same visitation rights to gay and lesbian partners that they do to married heterosexual couples.
In a memo to his Health and Human Services agency, Obama ordered the secretary to ensure that all hospitals getting Medicare and Medicaid money honor all patients' advance directives, including those designating who gets family visitation privileges.
The order also requires that documents granting power of attorney and healthcare proxies be honored, regardless of sexual orientation. The language could apply to unmarried heterosexual couples too.
The presence of loved ones is more important during a hospital stay than at any other time, Obama wrote in his memo. Yet widows and widowers with no children are often denied the "support and comfort of a good friend," he said, as are members of religious orders.
"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," he wrote.
In recent months, some leaders in the gay community have grown tired of waiting for the Democratic president to act on their issues since he took office more than a year ago.
But Obama has begun a steady campaign to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding gays and lesbians serving in the military. And his memo on hospital visitation rights touches on an issue of long-standing concern for gays and lesbians and their families.
(Why in the world is he not simply issuing a directive to abolish "don't ask don't tell. Truman integrated the military by fiat - despite the state of race relations in his era. Obama should stick to his rhetoric of being above politics and just get this done.)
Although it is not one of the more controversial items on gay activists' agenda, the visitation issue could still inspire a political fight. One conservative thinker said late Thursday that the memo undermines the definition of marriage and represents government intrusion into healthcare.
(Whom ever this "conservative thinker" is he/she isn't much of a thinker. The right to free association is not a gift from the government it is an inalienable right. True conservatives - politically - should applaud this step and support gay marriage, the government should not be in the business of defining marriage, hell it should not be in the marriage business.)
The Obama memo is inspired in part by the case of Janice Langbehn, who was kept from seeing her partner, Lisa Pond, as she slipped into a coma. Last September a federal judge rejected Langbehn's lawsuit against Florida's Jackson Memorial Hospital, saying there was no law requiring the staff to grant Langbehn access to Pond's bedside.
After signing the memo, Obama called Langbehn from Air Force One, according to a statement issued by Lambda Legal, which represented Langbehn in court.
"It was very rewarding to hear, 'I'm sorry,' from the president, because that's what I have wanted to hear from Jackson Memorial since the night Lisa died," Langbehn said in the statement. "I hope that taking these steps makes sure that no family ever has to experience the nightmare that my family has gone through."
Late Thursday, conservative leaders were just learning of the memo.
Peter Sprigg, senior fellow for policy studies at the conservative Family Research Council, said his organization doesn't object to people conferring a healthcare proxy or power of attorney on anyone they wish.
"But in its current political context, President Obama's memorandum clearly constitutes pandering to a radical special interest group," he said. "The memorandum undermines the definition of marriage, and furthers a big-government federal takeover of even the smallest details of the nation's healthcare system."
This has nothing to do with "a big-government federal takeover of even the smallest details of the nation's healthcare system.", it is recognition of an individual right of free association. If our system not only allows the communist party of the USA or the Nazi Party of the USA to host public rallies, but provides police protection at such events - why in hell should an ill or dying patient not be allowed to designate whomever they wish to visit them in the hospital.
But Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, said she hoped there would not be a furious fight over the move. Some people who oppose gay marriage or the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" have a different view on hospital visitation, she said.
"There may be challenges to it," she said. "But what we have seen across the country is that, no matter how people feel about same-sex marriage, people are overwhelmingly supportive of a person's ability to have their loved ones around them at times of crisis. . . . No one wants to be alone in a hospital."
Several states, including California, give some hospital rights to gays and lesbians. North Carolina recently gave patients the right to designate visitors whether visitors are legally related to the patient or not. Delaware, Nebraska and Minnesota have similar laws.
In his memo, Obama told HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to "expand on these important steps."
"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," Obama said. "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 . . . help communicate patients' needs."
cparsons@latimes.com
khennessey@tribune.com
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times