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U.S. House of Representatives lawmakers on Tuesday introduced bipartisan legislation to overhaul the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP), proposing to move pending COVID-19 vaccine injury claims into the program.
The Vaccine Injury Compensation Modernization Act would transfer covered COVID-19 vaccine injury claims from the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP) into the VICP.
The bill would also update compensation limits, expand vaccine coverage and increase the number of officials who decide claims.
React19, a nonprofit that advocates for people injured by COVID-19 vaccines, called the proposal the “most significant effort in decades to restore fairness to America’s vaccine injury compensation system.”
“For React19’s community, the bill represents far more than a policy proposal,” the organization said. “It represents hope.”
React19 co-founder Brianne Dressen said the legislation reflects years of advocacy by people who felt they had been forgotten.
“Today is the culmination of years of relentless advocacy by people who refused to let their injuries be ignored,” Dressen said. “This legislation sends an important message: every American deserves to be heard.”
House Ways and Means Committee members Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) and Lloyd Smucker (R-Penn.) introduced the bill.
‘Everybody knows someone who has been injured now’
Wayne Rohde, a longtime vaccine injury compensation advocate and author who has written extensively about the VICP, said the bill addresses an issue lawmakers can no longer ignore.
“We need to address the injuries caused by the COVID vaccine,” Rohde told The Defender. “If we’re going to have a viable vaccine policy in the U.S., if we do not compensate those who have been injured, [then in] the next pandemic, you will see a complete withdrawal from the public to accept any countermeasures because everybody knows someone who has been injured now.”
At the same time, Rohde said he has reservations about moving COVID-19 vaccines into the VICP because the legislation could bring additional vaccines developed with similar mRNA technology into the program.
“I have concerns about the technology used to develop it, and that it will allow traditional vaccine manufacturers to use that same technology for other vaccines covered in the program,” he said.
He also noted that the bill would expand VICP coverage to additional adult vaccines.
“If they add RSV, shingles and dengue, what that tells me is that the next vaccine down the pike will be swept into program, too,” Rohde said.
The VICP currently covers only those vaccines the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends for routine administration to children and pregnant women.
Kim Mack Rosenberg, Children’s Health Defense (CHD) general counsel, said that CHD supports the legislation, but also has some reservations.
“It is certainly a step in the right direction, particularly for people injured by COVID injections. However, it remains that the VICP, while significantly better than the CICP in many ways, still is an imperfect solution for those injured by vaccines. We will continue to advocate for changes to the VICP as well, including more ready access to courts of law.”
The fundamental issue remains that manufacturers have a legal shield from the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 that insulates them from liability and disincentivizes the development of safe vaccines, Mack Rosenberg said.
Bill would extend filing deadline and raise compensation cap
Created in 1986, the VICP is a no-fault alternative to traditional lawsuits that compensates people who suffer rare vaccine-related injuries.
The legislation would:
- Transfer covered COVID-19 vaccine injury claims from the CICP into the VICP.
- Extend the filing deadline for vaccine injury claims from three years to five years.
- Raise the cap on compensation for pain and suffering or death from $250,000 to $600,000, with future inflation adjustments.
- Increase the minimum number of special masters hearing claims from eight to 10.
- Expand VICP coverage to include COVID-19, RSV, shingles and dengue vaccines, along with other vaccines recommended by the CDC for adults.
Doggett said the legislation addresses “extended delays, outdated compensation caps, and failure to include coverage for COVID-19 vaccines.” Smucker said Americans who experience rare vaccine injuries deserve a compensation system that is “fair, transparent, and efficient.”
Only 62 COVID vaccine injury claims compensated as of July 1
COVID-19 vaccine injury claims have followed a different path than claims involving most routine vaccines.
Because the vaccines were initially deployed during the coronavirus pandemic, claims were routed into the CICP rather than the VICP.
The CICP was created under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act or Prep Act, which shields vaccine manufacturers, healthcare providers and others who administer covered countermeasures from most lawsuits during a public health emergency.
As a result, people alleging COVID-19 vaccine injuries generally cannot sue in traditional courts and instead must seek compensation through the CICP, where claims must be filed within one year of the injury.
Unlike the VICP, the CICP does not provide judicial review and generally limits compensation to medical expenses not covered by insurance and lost wages.
The program has drawn criticism because relatively few COVID-19 claims have resulted in compensation.
According to federal data, 14,755 COVID-19 vaccine injury claims have been filed with the CICP since the pandemic began. As of July 1, only 62 claims had been compensated, with total payments exceeding $7 million. Thousands of claims remained pending or had been denied.
Improving vaccine compensation program has been ‘elusive, uphill battle’
Attorney Ray Flores, senior outside counsel for CHD, said the legislation represents another attempt to make meaningful changes to the federal compensation system.
“Up until now, effecting substantive changes to vaccine compensation has been an elusive, uphill battle,” Flores told The Defender.
Flores said COVID-19 vaccine injuries have created a unique legal challenge since they fall between two separate federal compensation systems.
He said the proposed legislation seeks to move COVID-19 vaccine injury claims into the VICP, while the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is simultaneously facing a legal challenge over whether it was required to add COVID-19 vaccines to the VICP’s Vaccine Injury Table.
The lawsuit argues that under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, HHS was required to add COVID-19 vaccines to the table after they were recommended for routine use in children. However, the agency failed to do so, leaving some injured individuals unable to seek compensation through the VICP.
In addition, while the proposed legislation would move COVID-19 vaccine injury claims into the VICP, HHS is separately taking steps to strengthen the CICP.
Earlier this month, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that HHS plans to begin a rulemaking process in November to establish a formal COVID-19 Vaccine Injury Table, as required under the PREP Act.
The table would identify injuries presumed to have been caused by covered COVID-19 vaccines when supported by “compelling, reliable, valid, medical, and scientific evidence,” making it easier for some claimants to qualify for compensation.
Kennedy’s announcement followed several lawsuits challenging different aspects of the CICP.
One lawsuit seeks to require HHS to create the injury table required under the PREP Act. Others argue that the program violates constitutional due process protections because people injured by COVID-19 vaccines have no meaningful legal remedy outside the compensation program.
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‘You’re going to have tens of thousands of people … filing claims’
Rohde said Congress should also prepare for the financial impact if COVID-19 claims are transferred into the VICP.
Since the VICP began operating in 1988, over 30,000 petitions have been filed. “COVID is going to dwarf this,” Rohde said. “You’re going to have tens of thousands of people coming out of the woodwork filing claims.”
Although the legislation would increase the vaccine excise tax from 75 cents per antigen to $2.20, Rohde said he believes the trust fund will require additional support. He estimated that Congress may need to provide “$500 million to $1 billion” in startup funding while increasing the tax to between $3 and $4 per antigen.
Whether the legislation advances remains uncertain.
“We’ve been down this road before,” Rohde said, noting that previous proposals to expand the number of special masters and make other improvements stalled in Congress.
Still, he said lawmakers are facing increasing pressure to address the needs of people injured by COVID-19 vaccines.
“Congress doesn’t have an appetite for this,” Rohde said. “But they are also facing the political fallout that we have got to take care of these people.”
Related articles in The Defender
- Breaking: Government Program for Compensating COVID Vaccine Injuries Is ‘Unconstitutional,’ Lawsuit Alleges
- ‘Insult to Kangaroo Courts’: Lawsuit Takes Aim at Federal Program for Compensating COVID Vaccine Injuries
- RFK Jr. to Create COVID Vaccine Injury Table — Will More People Finally Be Compensated for Injuries?
- While U.S. Government Struggles to Process Claims, Nonprofit Awards $1 Million to People Injured by COVID Vaccines
- Federal COVID Vaccine Injury Program Pays for Another Death — But Denials Still Hover Above 98%
