Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced this week his intent to overhaul the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP), calling it a broken system that fails the very people it was designed to protect.
“The 1986 Vaccine Act gave vaccine makers immunity against lawsuits by children who suffer vaccine injuries,” Kennedy wrote in a post on X. “The VICP is broken, and I intend to fix it. I will not allow the VICP to continue to ignore its mandate and fail its mission of quickly and fairly compensating vaccine-injured individuals.”
The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 established the VICP, a no-fault tribunal housed within the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, that handles injury claims for 16 common vaccines. To date, it has awarded more than $5.2 billion to more than 12,000 petitioners for vaccine injuries.
“[…]the VICP no longer functions to achieve its Congressional intent,” Kennedy wrote. “Instead, the VICP has devolved into a morass of inefficiency, favoritism, and outright corruption as government lawyers and the Special Masters who serve as Vaccine Court judges prioritize the solvency of the HHS Trust Fund over their duty to compensate victims,” Kennedy wrote.
Individuals who suffer adverse effects cannot sue vaccine makers directly but must instead file claims with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, where special masters adjudicate cases. The program is funded through an excise tax on each vaccine dose. Payouts, including attorneys’ fees, are funded by a 75-cent tax per vaccine, and there’s a $250,000 cap on pain and suffering.
“The structure itself hobbles claimants,” Kennedy wrote. “The defendant is HHS, not the vaccine makers; and claimants are therefore facing the monumental power and bottomless pockets of the U.S. government represented by the Department of Justice.”
“Furthermore, most of the Special Masters come from government, legal, or political posts, and typically display an extreme bias that favors the government side. There is no discovery, and the rules of evidence do not apply,” he added.
According to Kennedy, the government’s lawyers do not allow children’s attorneys access to the Vaccine Safety Datalink—a taxpayer-funded CDC surveillance system that houses the best vaccine injury data. Additionally, the VICP’s Special Masters routinely dismiss meritorious cases outright or drag them out for years instead of “quickly and fairly” awarding compensation. Those that proceed typically take more than five years to resolve, with many languishing for 10 years as parents struggle to care for their suffering children. Attorney compensation is in the hands of these “notoriously biased Special Masters and often hostile government attorneys,” who have leverage to turn the petitioner attorneys against their clients’ interests.
Attorneys for petitioners say the Special Masters also make “punitive downward adjustments” to fees and expert witnesses who testify on behalf of injured children, complain they experience intimidation and threats against their professional status, or risk losing NIH funding if they testify for injured children.
Critics have long pointed to the program’s shortcomings. Petitions can take years to resolve, and many families are denied compensation despite documented injuries. According to data from the Health Resources and Services Administration, fewer than half of all claims filed since 1988 have been compensated, and more than 8,000 claims have been dismissed.
As HHS secretary, Kennedy is pushing for structural reforms. His proposals include moving the program out of HHS to eliminate conflicts of interest, appointing independent adjudicators, and ensuring more timely resolutions. He also called for increased transparency and better data collection on vaccine-related injuries.
The VICP was initially intended to stabilize the vaccine market during a time when rising injury lawsuits were pushing manufacturers out of the industry. Congress created a no-fault alternative to civil litigation that would both protect public health and ensure that children injured by vaccines received support. Critics argue that the burden of proof remains too high and the government has failed to update injury tables or provide adequate outreach to affected families.
Kennedy’s announcement marks the most significant executive-level push to reform the program in decades. While mainstream health organizations continue to support the VICP as a means of preserving confidence in vaccination, Kennedy’s move has opened the door to bipartisan discussion about whether the system still serves its original purpose.
HHS has not released details about a specific timeline for reforms. Still, Kennedy’s office said new policy recommendations and regulatory proposals are forthcoming, and they will be working closely with the Department of Justice.
