New Research Finds Ending the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program Would Create a $5.67 Per Dose “Vax Tax”

For Immediate Release

Contact: Kara Zupkus (224) 456-0257

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) released Quantifying the Post-VICP Vax Tax, a new policy brief detailing the massive economic and fiscal risks of eliminating the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP). As proposals to overhaul VICP and saddle it with unsustainable costs gain traction, TPA’s analysis reveals that unraveling this long-standing liability framework would result in 1980s-style tort litigation and, in the process, destabilize the domestic vaccine supply chain. This reckless move would impose billions of dollars in hidden (and not so hidden) costs on American consumers and taxpayers.

• Massive Tort Liability Surge: Eliminating VICP’s no-fault administrative tribunal would redirect vaccine injury claims back into state court systems, resulting in nearly 1,000 new lawsuits annually and exposing manufacturers to increased tort liability and soaring defense litigation costs.
• New “Vax Tax” on Families: To absorb skyrocketing litigation expenses and liability insurance premiums, manufacturers would be forced to increase retail prices across routine childhood and adult vaccines—creating an effective $5.67 per dose tax on patients and their families.
• Significant Fiscal Strain on Taxpayers: Higher per-dose procurement costs would directly impact federal and state budgets through public health purchasing programs like Vaccines for Children, driving up government spending.

TPA Executive Director Ross Marchand issued the following statement:

“Before Congress established the VICP in 1986, the domestic vaccine market was teetering on the edge of collapse. Manufacturers were pulled under by unpredictable tort litigation and systemic supply shortages. Reopening the floodgates to unbounded civil litigation would drag American healthcare back into that mess and mean higher prices and less access for millions of Americans. Ending the VICP would result in a ‘Vax Tax’ on taxpayers, patients, and healthcare entrepreneurs. When vaccine manufacturers face virtually unlimited liability, those legal costs inevitably get passed down to consumers and to taxpayers through inflated government procurement costs. The VICP must be protected and strengthened.”

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The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to educating the public through the research, analysis, and dissemination of information on the government’s impact on the economy.