Question:
My partner and I are not legally married, but are a committed couple. If either of us are hospitalized, does the other have the same legal hospital visitation rights as married partners do? And if not, is there paper-work that can document and secure that right?
Response:
No, you don’t have the same rights as spouses. But this can be remedied by you both executing health care proxies or durable powers of attorney for health care. (Different states have different names for these documents.)
Of course, you’re asking about something a bit different but related — visitation rights. Anyone in a hospital can have anyone they choose visit them. The problem comes when they are not able to make or express their choice. Then someone has to make this decision for them. Hospitals will defer to their agent under a health care proxy or durable power of attorney for health care. In the absence of such a document, they’re likely to ask the closest blood relatives — adult children, parents or even siblings, though different hospitals will have different policies.
I’d recommend signing financial durable powers of attorney for one another at the same time, as well as wills. While state laws say that spouses inherit from one another, in the absence of a surviving spouse property goes to children, parents and siblings in that order of priority. However, joint property or beneficiary designations supersede these “intestacy” rules.
