Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has floated a seismic idea: adding autism to the list of conditions covered by the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. Kennedy has also suggested broadening the definitions of two serious brain conditions — encephalopathy and encephalitis — so that autism cases could qualify. Compensation without causationThe Vaccine Injury Compensation Program was born of crisis. "When people see the Vaccine Injury Compensation program, they assume that any money that is given is because there was a vaccine injury," he said. The debate over adding autism to the Vaccine Injury Table is not just a policy debate.