Obama extends health care rights to gay partners

[Twilla]

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You know what annoys/upsets me about this 'news'? That it even has to be discussed. Why WOULDN'T someone's life partner be included on a visitor list at a hospital?

WASHINGTON – In a move hailed as a step toward fairness for same-sex couples, President Barack Obama is ordering that nearly all hospitals allow patients to say who has visitation rights and who can help make medical decisions, including gay and lesbian partners.

The White House on Thursday released a statement by Obama instructing his Health and Human Services secretary to draft rules requiring hospitals that receive Medicare and Medicaid payments to grant all patients the right to designate people who can visit and consult with them at crucial moments.

The designated visitors should have the same rights that immediate family members now enjoy, Obama's instructions said. It said Medicare-Medicaid hospitals, which include most of the nation's facilities, may not deny visitation and consultation privileges on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.

The move was called a major step toward fairness for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans.
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[Twitchin Kitten]

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It hasn't been discussed because it's not restricted to gays only. Often when I was in the hospital I had to lie and say Matt was married to me so he can make decisions on my behalf and be considered as "immediate family" for visitation.

I can't get on his health care policy because we are not married. This issue goes beyond gay rights and I've said that all along when we talk about insurance reform and gay rights in the same topic in the past.

It's all insurance companies. Insurance reform is what we need because although what he "extended" for the gays, will still exclude straight, unmarried couples.

Insurance companies do not want to have gay's given the same privileges because they would have to include unmarried single couples as well. Some states do allow provisions for this. Here in NJ, if we were a gay couple, insurance will allow me to be on his insurance, but his boss has to allow non-gay couples (which he won't) onto the plan. By allowing gays and non-married couples into their plans, that increases the chance of them having to pay out more for whatever and in turn yield lower profits.
Fuckers are not insurance companies but more like casinos who stack the deck in their favor.

Now, why hospitals do this I have no idea. It makes no sense unless there is some kind of tie to insurance companies that we (I) don't know about.