Adding Autism Claims to the VICP Would Likely Destroy It

The costs of covering serious autism cases under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) could undermine childhood vaccine production. Given Kennedy’s views on autism causation and his antipathy towards the VICP, it seems prudent to consider the economic burden that the addition of autism claims would impose on the program. One then needs to estimate the likely compensation that would be awarded for each profound autism claim, consistent with VICP precedent involving similar injuries. Any addition of autism to the VICP Injury Table would raise additional issues for which the program is simply not designed. Without such medically supportable limits in the Injury Table, the huge number of autism claims would undoubtedly bankrupt the VICP.