MOAA throws support behind malpractice bill - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

MOAA throws support behind malpractice bill

A bill that would reverse a 60-year-old Supreme Court ruling that bans service members from suing the federal government for medical errors has gained the endorsement of an influential advocacy group.

“Your legislation would remove an inequity,” retired Vice Adm. Norb Ryan, president of the 370,000-member Military Officers Association of America, wrote in a Friday letter to Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., the lead sponsor of the bill.

Legal recourse for medical negligence, Ryan noted, “is available to all other citizens, including military dependents, military retirees and survivors and their dependents, and even federal prisoners and wartime detainees. MOAA agrees that it is inconsistent to treat service members differently.”

The additional legal protection “is particularly appropriate given that service members often have little choice in their selection of military medical providers,” Ryan said.

Hinchey’s bill, the Carmelo Rodriguez Military Medical Accountability Act, would amend federal law to “allow members of the Armed Forces to sue the United States for damages for certain injuries caused by improper medical care, and for other purposes.”

Rodriguez was a Marine Corps platoon leader and Iraq war veteran who died at age 29 from a melanoma that military doctors at first correctly diagnosed but failed to refer for treatment or record, then later misdiagnosed as a birthmark.

“The 7-year old son and family he left behind currently have no legal recourse for this tragic case of malpractice,” Hinchey said in a statement. “Those who were at fault have not been held accountable.”

Hinchey said he welcomed the endorsement of MOAA, which he called “the largest and most influential association of military officers.”

He noted that his bill has also been endorsed by the American Association for Justice, the American Bar Association, Veterans Equal Rights Protection Advocacy, the Alliance for Justice, and Protecting Our Guardians.

The bill recently was approved by the full House Judiciary Committee and awaits a House floor vote, according to Hinchey.