The news is awash with descriptions and commentary on the Presidential Memorandum signed yesterday that requires hospitals funded by Medicare and Medicaid to allow non-family visitors in certain circumstances.  I think it's important to cut through the posturing and read the actual memo which can be found here .   The memo is pretty straightforward, in that it says that hospitals must allow patients to designate who can visit them, whether those visitors are family or non-family.  It also says that hospitals must honor medical powers of attorney and other advanced directives that name an agent to make health care decisions, again whether or not the agent is related to the patient.  Medical personnel will still be able to restrict visitation for medical reasons.

This will prevent the opinions of a single security guard, front desk clerk or nurse from making or breaking the ability of a patient to be visited and aided in decisionmaking by whomever the patient wants.   I think it will also have another effect, which will allow a patient to restrict visitation by family members the patient does not want to see. 

Colorado already has a similar law in CRS 15-18.5-101.  Now the right to decide who will be at your hospital bedside will be federally protected in almost every hospital in the country.  How can that be a bad thing?