Congress explores giving active military the right to sue for malpractice

For almost sixty years, active duty members of the U.S. military were denied the right to seek compensation for medical malpractice, if the negligent treater was employed by the government.  This "immunity" for government doctors and their employer was established in a court decision rendered in the U.S. Supreme Court's 1950 Feres decision (and is, thus, called the Feres Doctrine.)

The U.S. House took a long step toward granting members of the military equal right to file a Form 95 compensation claim when the House Judiciary Committee passed a bill this week that would overturn the Feres Doctrine in cases of non-combat medical treatment. Treatment rendered in battlefield situations would remain exempt from meeting any standard of care, however, cases such as that of Marine Sgt. Carmelo Rodriguez, would now be compensable.  Rodriguez died from metastasized skin cancer, after the cancer was mis-diagnosed as a "boil" and mis-treated for years by a succession of military doctors.