Bill Would Allow Malpractice Lawsuits Against Military Doctors

The bill would provide fairness for veterans who are misdiagnosed and harmed by doctors.

Marine Sgt. Carmelo Rodriquez

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) - Members of the U.S. armed forces would be able to sue the military for medical malpractice, under a bill introduced in Congress.

Legal Newsline reported on Friday that Rep. Maurice Hinchey, a New York Democrat, has introduced the Carmelo Rodriquez Military Medical Accountability Act to reverse a 1950 U.S. Supreme Court that protects the military from malpractice lawsuits.

"Joining the military should not mean that one has to give up his or her right to hold medical providers accountable," Hinchey was quoted as saying.

HR 6093 would allow claims for damages for death or personal injury resulting from negligence, the failure to act or wrongful acts in medical, dental or other health care provided by the military to service members.

Claims would be able to be brought against the government, but not individual medical personnel, including doctors, dentists and nurses, the Legal Newsline report said.

The bill is named for a U.S. Marine sergeant who died last year from skin cancer after military medical personnel allegedly mistreated his condition.

Carmelo Rodriquez of Ellenville, N.Y., who died at 29, had a melanoma on his buttocks that had been misdiagnosed as a birthmark or wart by military doctors in Iraq.

"The death of Carmelo Rodriguez is an extraordinary tragedy that has left his family with nowhere to turn," Hinchey said.

The legislation would reverse the Feres Doctrine, which prohibits lawsuits for medical negligence that harms service members.

"As the result of a misguided law and subsequent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, the Rodriguez family and many other military families in similar situations have no way of holding the military responsible for the negligence of military medical personnel," Hinchey said.

But some say that the military needs to be protected from malpractice lawsuits to protect officers from being threatened by with possible lawsuits by subordinates and to help keep health care professionals serving in the military.