MOAA throws support behind malpractice billBy William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Friday May 7, 2010 16:00:15 EDT
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.”
unhappycamper comment: I suspect this was caused by the VA fucking up colonoscopies (and veterans) from incorrectly cleaned equipment.