It must be nice to be a dictator.
I wonder if anyone will ask him what gives him the authority to do this?
He is the President of the United States, the chief administrator of the federal government, but that does not mean he can order people, or businesses or organizations to do what he wants. If it did, why have a Congress?
he can pretty much tell any US government office to do whatever and they have to comply. I have worked in plenty of private sector hospitals and I have never seen gay folks discriminated against in any way. This, like his nuclear “treaty” is much ado about nothing so he can claim he has done something besides presideover a year of record unemployment and foreclosures.
“I wonder if anyone will ask him what gives him the authority to do this?”
This is just one more of literally thousands of rules the Feds have imposed on hospitals that receive Medicare. As per the “golden rule,” Uncle Sam dispenses the Medicare gold and therefore gets to make whatever rules it wants as a condition of being on the receiving end of federal largesse.
Of course, by the same principle, Uncle Sam could decide that anyone benefiting from a tax subsidy for health insurance—which includes everyone with employer-provided health coverage (and once health reform is operational, also will extend to many with individual health coverage—should have to dance to Uncle Sam’s tune. We can imagine rules related to smoking, diet, exercise etc. all on grounds that such rules are “reasonable” in light of the federal assistance being given.