Bill Seeks to Reverse Military Medical Malpractice Injustice
The brave men and women of the United States military may finally be making headway in their legal rights to malpractice recourse. Congressman Maurice Hinchey of New York announced legislation he authored intended to reverse the block to armed service members and their families from holding the military accountable for negligent health care. The bill called the Carmelo Rodriguez Military Medical Accountability Act of 2008 is named after the late Sgt. Rodriquez who died of skin cancer after a series of extraordinary mistakes made by military medical personnel. “The death of Carmelo Rodriguez is an extraordinary tragedy that has left his family with nowhere to turn,” Hinchey said. “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. Joining the military should not mean that one has to give up his or her right to hold medical providers accountable. The Carmelo Rodriguez Military Medical Accountability Act of 2008 will finally bring accountability into the military medical system and afford our service members and their families the same rights that the rest of us have when it comes to medical malpractice.”
