[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Page 5741]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               RESPECTING THE RIGHTS OF HOSPITAL PATIENTS

  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, last week, the country took another 
important step toward a more just and perfect union when President 
Obama issued a Presidential Memorandum on Respecting the Rights of 
Hospital Patients to Receive Visitors and to Designate Surrogate 
Decision Makers for Medical Emergencies. I applaud the President for 
this effort to ensure that every person enjoys the same right to have 
their loved ones with them in hospitals and to designate surrogate 
decision makers when they are hospitalized, often in their time of 
greatest need. No one should be forced to face important medical 
decisions or spend their last moments apart from their loved ones just 
because the person they love happens to be of the same sex.
  The President has directed the Secretary of Health and Human Services 
to issue regulations prohibiting hospitals that participate in Medicare 
and Medicaid from denying visitation privileges on the basis of race, 
color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender 
identity, or disability. The memorandum issued last week also calls for 
greater enforcement of existing regulations that ensure all patients' 
legal representatives have the right to make informed decisions 
regarding patients' care.
  There is a tragic history of discrimination in health care, but 
fortunately, we are making progress to end it. Hospitals were racially 
segregated until the 1960s, when Congress passed legislation 
prohibiting that discrimination in hospitals that are recipients of 
Federal funding. The President's memorandum is a similarly important 
step toward equal treatment. For too long, some hospital patients have 
been denied the basic rights of receiving visitors and designating 
surrogate decision makers without a remedy in Federal law. In Vermont, 
many same-sex couples have sought to be recognized as committed couples 
by law to ensure that they and their families are entitled to these 
rights. Those families should not lose those rights when traveling out 
of State.
  The fight for equal rights protections continues in Congress. I am a 
proud cosponsor of the bipartisan Domestic Partnership Benefits and 
Obligations Act of 2009, which would provide domestic partners of 
Federal employees all of the protections and benefits afforded to 
spouses of Federal employees, including participation in applicable 
retirement programs, compensation for work injuries and health 
insurance benefits. I also support the Tax Equity for Health Plan 
Beneficiaries Act of 2009, which would end the taxation of health 
benefits provided to domestic partners in workplaces that provide 
domestic partner health benefits to their employees.
  Respecting the rights of all hospital patients to have their loved 
ones near in times of crisis is something every American should 
support.

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