WI GOP Governor seeks to strip gay couples hospital visitation rights

[Danno 1,228]

That's false. Aside from limitations of the number of visitors allowed at any given time, there are typically hours stipulated where general visits are permitted and then there are hours where only immediate relatives are allowed to be with the patient. When our daughter was born, for example, my mother-in-law was allowed to stay with my wife 24 hours a day. I would have been allowed the same. A non immediate family member? Not so much.

SO people who are living together but not married are barred from visitation?

I have never even been asked except once.

A relative on mine, a healthcare professional told me at their Hospital, they only pull out the "rulebook" when too many visitors show up.

On the face of it this whole thing seems looney.

Which one of your local hospitals would want a news story run in which their policy prohibited a person a visit from their gay partner .. on their death bed?

Even Danno is not that heartless.

[Danno 1,228]

That's false. Aside from limitations of the number of visitors allowed at any given time, there are typically hours stipulated where general visits are permitted and then there are hours where only immediate relatives are allowed to be with the patient. When our daughter was born, for example, my mother-in-law was allowed to stay with my wife 24 hours a day. I would have been allowed the same. A non immediate family member? Not so much.

SO people who are living together but not married are barred from visitation?

I have never even been asked except once.

A relative on mine, a healthcare professional told me at their Hospital, they only pull out the "rulebook" when too many visitors show up.

On the face of it this whole thing seems looney.

Which one of your local hospitals would want a news story run in which their policy prohibited a person a visit from their gay partner .. on their death bed?

Even Danno is not that heartless.

[^_^ 5,021]

Kaiser Permanente does. Security has you sign in and verify your relationship with the patient. Only immediate relatives were allowed in the ER and you must be escorted by security.

Interesting how this response offering specific information has gone ignored.

[Danno 1,228]

Interesting how this response offering specific information has gone ignored.

I want a hospital name where I can call and ask "how I will be received" if my partner is an inpatient.

I am not interested in calling 1800-Permanente,

[Zero Sum 305]

Interesting how this response offering specific information has gone ignored.

It seems several other posts were predictably ignored as well.

I want a hospital name where I can call and ask "how I will be received" if my partner is an inpatient.

I am not interested in calling 1800-Permanente,

Ummm... KP runs many hospitals.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

SO people who are living together but not married are barred from visitation?

They can visit just like any other individual but may not have been granted the right to remain with the patient 24 hours a day. That has since changed after the Obama administration required, among other things, Hospital visitation rights for same-sex partners of hospitals receiving federal funds.

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.

[Obama 2012 1,714]

I want a hospital name where I can call and ask "how I will be received" if my partner is an inpatient.

I am not interested in calling 1800-Permanente,

Danno, unless you are considered "immediate family" by standard definitions, you will not be allowed in during certain hours and you will certainly not be allowed to make medical decisions.

[Danno 1,228]

They can visit just like any other individual but may not have been granted the right to remain with the patient 24 hours a day. That has since changed after the Obama administration required, among other things, Hospital visitation rights for same-sex partners of hospitals receiving federal funds.

Due to the many circumstances of life and relationships, I applaud this action from Obama, (with what little info I know about it).

Life is too complicated to pigeon hole everyone like that but I highly doubt very many places were preventing people from visitations.... such a news story of some sickly homosexual dying alone of Aids or whatever ...would get wall to wall coverage... and you know it.

Edited May 17, 2011 by Danno

[Sergi9 110]

Excellent opinion, Paul. I don't necessarily agree with the need to eliminate marriage from government- I favor the government recognizing civil unions and heterosexual marriages equally to allow gays to 'marry' as they see fit and enjoy/condemn themselves as do all of us heterosexuals do in marriage.

Here here, have the alimony, child support divorce headaches like the rest of us.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

some sickly homosexual dying alone of Aids

That says it all...

[The Dude 206]

Kaiser Permanente does. Security has you sign in and verify your relationship with the patient. Only immediate relatives were allowed in the ER and you must be escorted by security.

I've never had that experience, and my mother was just in a Kaiser ER. When she was in surgery, they did verify my father's relationship for the purposes of life and death decision making, but regarding visitation, they didn't care.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

The problem is that the government is in any way involved with hospital visitation rules.

Why is it an issue at all? When I was in intensive care my wife simply said she was my wife and they let her stay in the room with me. She didn't have to "prove" she was my wife. If someone says they are a person's husband, wife, partner, whatever and want to stay with them in the hospital what the heck is the problem that the government needs to get involved in?

For that matter, why are they involved in marriage? Can't we handle that within religious practices and/or allow private organizations to perform weddings? A marriage is just a contract anyway, seems that our court system can litigate other forms of contracts without being present when the contract is agreed to.

we just seem to fall into this "we must have government for everything" mode and then argue over what level of control they should have when the answer is simply "none".

Edited May 18, 2011 by Gary and Alla

[keysjangle 145]

Another proxy war. A lot of people don't want homosexuals to be treated like humans (you know, like heteros, with feelings, relationships, all that #######). Unfortunately, these same people are allowed to make it into the government and ruin other people's lives. Just one more thing they want to control so they can sleep well at night knowing the LGBT community has been degraded once again.

Unbelievable.

[Little_My 464]

Danno,

I feel like debating over whether or not a specific hospital actually in practice verifies a visitor's identity and relationship to a patient is entirely besides the point. That is not what this topic and debate is fundamentally about. The fact of the matter is that hospitals should check a visitor's identity, and at least in most states should only allow immediate family members visiting rights - whether or not hospitals actually enforce these regulations is another matter, and another debate.

This issue is about gay marriage and rights of gay couples in the face of the law - and it is about certain individuals and groups wanting to strip gay couples of their basic rights that are guaranteed by laws and the constitution to heterosexual married couples. It is about treating gay couples as "not real" couples, since their marriage, according to some, does not fit the traditional and conservative - and, also religious - definition of a marriage. It's not about a hospital here or another there failing to actually check a person's relationship to a patient - the issue is that IF that hospital chose to check the visitor's ID and relationship to the patient in question, and it turned out that the visitor was the patient's gay wife/husband, that person could legally be denied visiting rights because the law does not recognize their marriage as equal to a heterosexual marriage.

I could really give a rat's a** about whether or not Methodist hospital in Brooklyn or Mount Sinai in NYC actually checks for IDs. I do care - deeply - about securing equal rights to all married couples alike, gay or straight. A person lying in a hospital bed should be able to have their spouse, the person they have chose to share their lives with, visit them. Taking away that right because that couple happens to be a same sex couple is absolutely absurd, and more than anything, a total violation against the best interest of the patient. It is pointless, stupid and ignorant - and, more than anything, it is nasty politics.

Edited May 18, 2011 by Little_My

[ready4ONE 5,400]