Posted on 04/15/2010 9:00:23 PM PDT by LouAvul
President Obama on Thursday signed a memorandum requiring hospitals to allow gays and lesbians to have non-family visitors and to grant their partners medical power of attorney.
The president ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to prohibit discrimination in hospital visitation. The memo is scheduled to be made public Friday morning, according to an administration official and another source familiar with the White House decision.
An official said the new rule will affect any hospital that receives Medicare or Medicaid funding.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Why would someone name a stranger as someone who should be allowed in to see them?
We can't just disagree with Obama because he's wrong 99.999% of the time.
Thank you. I honestly did not know that.
I’m sorry you were denied. That wasn’t right.
I wasn’t. She was live-in girlfriend. Went everywhere they took her.
Even with Medicare funding, such a rule should be made by legislation. He is a dictator.
Hospitals should counter the policy is already in effect in all maternity wards, so long as the partner and the patient are the genetic parents of the infant.
I don't think that's always true. Not long ago, where I work, a dying teenager was in the ICU. A steady stream of mostly kids were coming in all day long to see him. However, I believe only his family were with him when he died, and the friends were in the waiting room.
Thank you. That was the term they used, and whenever I referred to myself as that, I had free roam and access.
Next time look for the social worker and they can put you on the list or if patient requests only certain visitors that is a different story but has nothing to do with the homosexual issue.
Obama is full of quackery trying to find your every last dime and looking to claim every social embellishment he and his other fakers can publicize and mesmerize and there are plenty of folk that he and his regime can bend like silly putty.
The sodomite state strikes again!
This is the biggest farce I have seen during the O’s term of office. This has been law for so many years, at least 10 if not more. The gays and lesbos already know it, and if they don’t, then they have been hiding in some closet somewhere.
Why O would think that he has to announce it and trouce it is beyond me. Perhaps he knows that the GLB crowd is unhappy that him, that he isn’t liberal enough and he is trying to appease them.
Anybody over the age of 14 that isn’t ill, can visit anybody in the hospital setting. Anybody can give anyone of legal age, Medical Power of Attorney. The paperwork is available in every hospital and online. It needs to be signed and witnessed by 2 people to make it valid.
I have been asked to make medical decision by two different individuals that were not blood relatives. All you have to do is present the signed, witnessed copy and you are the decision maker. That is, unless someone shows up with a more current version. It is just like a will, the most current copy is the valid one.
But ONLY gays get non-family? Straights and asexuals don’t?
This is nuts.
You are right! ICU and the visitor situation has been a hot item in the medical community. Some have rules more rigid than others. But today we have family centered care and ICU’s have had to adapt to the theme and flex the rules. The environment in the ICU as well as the ER is more restrictive because patients are in high level of medical intervention. But believe me if you are a homosexual partner or significant other you will be treated as family member. Not everyone has family support and we know this in the hospital field. We make accommodations and we prefer patients to have the support of those close to him/her or her/him-sometimes it is hard to tell the difference in places I have worked!
I’ve never seen a gay partner turned away in any situation other than the patient’s biological family refuses to allow the hospital to give access to the partner. I think this is another situation where a minority chooses to accuse the public of discrimination when a short legal form and the effort put forth to fill it out properly takes care of all these problems. If you are gay and you have a life partner that you trust, simply fill out a POA, living will, advanced directive or whatever it happens to be called in your state. It is not as if the hospital seeks out conflict or tries to separate couples. If you are gay and you didn’t get to see your loved one or be with your loved one, that is your partner’s fault because they did not fill out the paperwork necessary to have you designated. It really is that simple.
Oy! The horse can’t fit it the car, and it can’t drive - so this shouldn’t be a problem!
I don't want Obama making any decisions for me.
Let's say you are just out of surgery and doped to the gills. Under the old rules only family members, by blood or marriage, or other person with prior arranged permission would be allowed access to your drugged and helpless person. Under the new rules well, as long as they claim to be your lover, they must be allowed access. It could be anybody. Whether you know them or want to see them or not.
Like I said the other day, he needs to come out of both closets.
You know, we could probably really piss him off if we sent him empty cardboard boxes, bubble wrapper and styrofoam peanuts as gifts to help assist him with his upcoming move.
But the horse could be ridden to the horsepital.
Ya know...the more I think about this hokus-pokus I am convinced that Ofakery is trying to give his health care a reverent humanitarian spin because gays, blacks, hispanic, etc etc are minorities that have not received enough warm fuzzies. I must clarify this is not a racist statement coming from me!
I am a professional nurse who works in many capacities without discrimination. I must add this because a few days ago I had 2 replies zapped away by a moderater. Really took me a day or so to let go of ‘why did that happen to me?’ thoughts.
Without a Power of Attorney, how is the Hospital supposed to know who is who?
They cannot release Patient information without knowing the person's relationship to the Patient without violating HIPAA.
The Lawyers will have a field day suing the Hospitals.
Okay, you got me. My mental image included a dress rather than a saddle and so I was a little confused.
Nam Vet
You don't disagree with a President who actually thinks he has the authority to order hospitals to do anything with simply a signature on a piece of paper? Wow, you must really be longing for communism to take over.
“but allowing someone outside the family to make life and death decisions for someone is just wrong on so many levels.”
I’m glad you come from a very strong family with apparently strong ties. Not everyone (homosexual, asexual or heterosexual) has strong family bonds or families that have the person’s best interest in mind. The great thing about our healthcare system is that a patient can name anyone as their significant other/decision maker etc. and the hospitals honor the patient’s wishes. However, it because a sticky wicket when the patient is unable to name a person upon admission and does not have any paperwork on file with his physician or with the hospital designating such said person.
As a previous poster noted, I’ve seen patients whose friends, partners etc who truly cared about the person and were not blood relatives. Let us all be lucky enough to have someone who cares enough for us to do us right when we need it
This is a State issue and is a legal issue as set out individually in State legislatures. Lest we forget Terri Schiavo and how her 'Husband' in name only decreed her death sentence...
The leftists seem to violate law when it suits them -they on one hand rally to ignore law to advance the homosexual agenda under the guise of 'fairness' while on the other hand sit silent or protest a violation of law when it came to Mr. & Mrs. Schivo, a father and mother trying to save thier daughters life from the decree of death her supposed husband handed down for her...
YES -it will create a can of worms IF the States wimp out and follow the boy kings orders from mount omoron....
I didn't catch that, would you please quote that part of the order? Thanks.
Blind one meet Tyrant...
LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL !!!!!!!!!!!!
I like it -pictures paint a thousand words...
Here you go. If they can not discriminate between visitors then they have to let anyone who wants in come in unless you have asked for them to be kept out.
So former friends, ex-spouses, your boss, your landlord all they have to do is claim to be your lover and they are whisked right in.
Now this may not be the intention of the memo BUT it will be the result. Because the first time a hospital asks one of the gay lovers for some kind of proof that they are actually in relationship with the patient they will scream to the heavens that their civil rights were violated and the hospital committed a hate crime.
So the hospital will not ask. It may sound wild but did you ever think you would see the day when people could wander into either a boys or girls bathroom depending on what sex they "felt like" they were that day?
Nonsense--you're talking about "public access," not discrimination. Discrimination or non-discrimination has nothing to do with letting jsut anyone in off the street. A private school can't discriminate on the basis of sex, sexual preference, etc.--that doesn't mean they take everyone who simply wants entry to their school. Ditto with apartments, private companies, etc.
You've completely distorted the meaning of disccrimination. You as much admit you're incorrect when you later add "Now this may not be the intention of the memo ..." and that the first time the hospital asks someone will scream discrimination. The first time someone asks for access and is shown right in, as you say, and the patient threatens to sue the hospital for lax security.
Obviously you don't have to agree with the ruling, but to simply invent things doesn't make sense.
It may sound wild but did you ever think you would see the day when people could wander into either a boys or girls bathroom depending on what sex they "felt like" they were that day?
A bit paranoid, aren't we? I've never seen this very rare occurance happen--have you?
The horse gets to visit, of course.
Power of attorney ends at death.
For me, and probably most here, it’s not about who visits you, but the President has NO right to dictate this and absolutely no reason to micromanage this either.
Wait until Obamacare takes hold. He will be ordering Catholic hospitals to perform abortions for the same reasons.
“People in a committed relationship should be able to visit their loved ones in the hospital.”
What is a ‘committed relationship’, what are it’s limits or boundries and how do you gauge it at the hospital?
Right. But the same contractual powers that currently exist can then name anyone as executor.
That's exactly what this does. Unmarried couples, either gay or straight, can now specify in writing who can visit them in the hospital. There's nothing about this that says hospitals have to allow visitation rights to someone just claiming to be someone's partner.
I agree. A micro-managing, self-absorbed dictator.
Our legislatve branch should be ASHAMED for allowing this to take place.
It may be "official" policy, but I doubt it's ever enforced.
Just another day in paradise.....
Is Larry Sinclare hospitalized?
Sinclare-———> Sinclair
That’s not my point. From what I read it goes to also giving gay partners medical POA. Currently, you can give anyone medical POA in writing. This seems to indicate that gay partners now have that right without writing. Next of kin can make medical decisions for an incapacitated person based upon legally recognized relationships. There are legal documents which are evidence of such relationships (marriage licenses, birth certificates). Without such, how does a hospital shield itself from liability if someone claims to be a “partner” but it turns out the incapacitated party does not have the same intent?
This is not an issue of visitation, but of medical decisions. I just think the hospital can be caught in a no-win situation in some cases where the parties may not view their relationship in the same light, but one is incapacitated and cannot speak for his own medical decisions.
But I have never seen them ask for any proof of familial relationship. Hospitals should let patients have visits from whomever the patient wishes. No need for the so-called president to be involved. The man just wants to micro-manage the world.
FUBO
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.