For Release: July 16, 2020
Contact: Joanne Doroshow
More Than 50 National and State Organizations Ask U.S. House To Oppose Health Care Immunity Bill
Fifty-five health, safety, labor, consumer, civil rights, women’s, veterans, student, senior, environmental, and other organizations sent a letter today to the U.S. House of Representatives expressing strong opposition to H.R. 7059, the “Coronavirus Provider Protection Act.”
According to the letter, this bill, which would broadly immunize negligent health care providers and facilities including nursing homes, “could cause extreme harm to patients and have lethal consequences.” The bill’s wide-ranging scope includes immunizing negligent health care “far beyond” COVID-19 treatment, and would be triggered even if health care decisions are driven by statements made by the President of the United States or local politicians rather than by science.
The groups also note, “concerns about medical malpractice lawsuits against front-line health care workers are unwarranted. … More than 3 million people have been infected with COVID-19 in the United States and nearly 140,000 have died. Yet fewer than 40 virus-related medical malpractice or wrongful death cases have been filed in the entire country since the pandemic began, nearly all of those cases against nursing homes.”
A copy of the letter is here.
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