Ross Marchand, Executive Director of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, said in an April 3 op-ed that adding autism to the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program's (VICP) injury table would be 'one of the biggest giveaways to trial lawyers in generations,' and that such a change could potentially be made by Secretary Kennedy without new legislation from Congress. Marchand's comments come as the Department of Health and Human Services reviews possible changes to the VICP.
The discussion is significant because legal scholarship projects that expanding the VICP injury table could have major financial consequences for the program and shift large sums toward plaintiffs' attorneys. Marchand made his statement in an op-ed published by RealClearHealth as HHS reviews the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. The op-ed references recent legal scholarship on the fiscal impact of proposed changes to the program's injury table, according to RealClearHealth.
Marchand said, 'Under VICP, attorneys representing claimants receive a flat hourly fee, separate from any award to claimants. But in civil court, trial lawyers commonly receive 33 percent of any award, before a claimant receives a penny.' He also said, 'For nearly 40 years, the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program has done exactly what it was created to do: deliver justice to victims while protecting against runaway litigation.'
Grossi, an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, argued that adding autism to the VICP injury table could generate more than $30 billion in annual awards. A retroactive docket could reach $250 billion under the statute's eight-year lookback provision, according to an analysis in the Penn Law Public Law Research Series.
The VICP has paid approximately $5.5 billion in compensation since 1988, funded by a $0.75 excise tax on each vaccine dose, according to data from the Health Resources and Services Administration. Before its creation, lawsuits against pertussis vaccine manufacturers rose from one in 1978 to 73 in 1984, leaving only one domestic manufacturer by 1985.
The Taxpayers Protection Alliance is a nonpartisan organization based in Washington, D.C., that advocates for fiscal responsibility and government accountability on behalf of taxpayers. TPA said it has launched a dedicated resource to educate Americans about the VICP's goal of protecting patients and fostering innovation.
