NY

I am writing to urge you to adopt the Proposed Rule, published June 28, 2010, that would require all hospitals receiving Medicare and Medicaid funding to respect the visitation rights of all patients, including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and their families. As President Obama noted in his April 15th memorandum on hospital visitation, "There are few moments in our lives that call for greater compassion and companionship than when a loved one is admitted to the hospital. In these hours of need and moments of pain and anxiety, all of us would hope to have a hand to hold, a shoulder on which to lean -- a loved one to be there for us, as we would be there for them." But for far too many LGBT people, the difficulty of these moments has been compounded by policies and practices that needlessly keep families and friends apart. Not only does this attack the dignity of LGBT people, it endangers them as patients, often keeping those who know the most about medical histories and patient wishes on the other side of a waiting room door. I thank the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for taking action on this important issue. I urge you to adopt this proposed regulation and ensure that LGBT people -- and all patients -- have the right to designate and receive visitors of their choosing. We carry papers wherever we go to show we are health care proxies for one another, but we live with the uncertainty that they might not be honored when we need them.