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发帖数: 22013 | 1 http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal-eye/2011/01/hospital_v
Posted at 9:30 AM ET, 01/19/2011
Hospital visitation rights for same-sex partners now required by federal
rules
By Ed O'Keefe
Nearly all hospitals this week are extending visitation rights to the
partners of gay men and lesbians under new federal rules that officially
enact a key piece of the Obama administration's continuing efforts to expand
the rights of gay Americans.
The federal regulations, which apply to hospitals receiving Medicaid and
Medicare funding, state that health-care institutions may not prohibit
visitation rights based on sexual orientation. In the past, hospital often
barred visitors not related to an incapacitated patient by blood or marriage
. Gay rights groups also complained that many hospitals didn't allow same-
sex partners to designate each other as someone eligible to make major
medical decisions for them if they are injured or seriously ill.
The new regulations went into effect Tuesday. Any hospital found to be
violating the new rules risks losing federal funding, usually a major source
of revenue.
Gay rights advocates hailed the changes.
"Of all the things same-sex couples have to worry about, of all the
discrimination and pressures we face, not being able to see our partner or
spouse shouldn't be one of them," said Rea Carey, executive director of the
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. "This new policy will have a positive
impact on same-sex couples and our families throughout the nation."
President Obama ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to draft
the new regulations last year after learning of two lesbians who were
unable to be with their same-sex partners before they died.
The move came weeks before the White House brokered a deal with
Congressional Democrats that set in motion legislation ending the military's
"don't ask, don't tell" policy. The bill passed in December, giving the gay
community a signficant legislative victory.
Gay rights supporters are pushing for several other policy changes,
including the use of more gender-neutral language on federal forms,
assurances that the Federal Emergency Management Agency will provide proper
assistance to gay and lesbian people and their children during disaster
relief efforts, and a nondiscriminatory policy for the Transportation
Security Administration that addresses the treatment of transgender air
passengers.
By Ed O'Keefe | January 19, 2011; 9:30 AM ET | D**S
发帖数: 24887 | | m******1
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Four states -- North Carolina, Delaware, Nebraska and Minnesota -- had
already taken steps to allow patients to designate certain individuals the
same rights and privileges of family members.
http://goo.gl/hvFdU |
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