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National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986: Using Tax Revenues to Assure Vaccine Availability
Author(s) -
Drake Brenda,
Tieman Andrew M.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
public budgeting and finance
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.694
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1540-5850
pISSN - 0275-1100
DOI - 10.1111/1540-5850.01006
Subject(s) - government (linguistics) , liability , business , revenue , tax revenue , psychological intervention , tax policy , finance , public economics , tax reform , medicine , economics , nursing , philosophy , linguistics
The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 was funded with an earmarked tax in an attempt to prevent a perceived crisis that was developing in the United States regarding the availability and affordability of vaccines for life‐threatening childhood illnesses. The federal government felt compelled to intervene in a perceived failure of the private marketplace. In short, the inability of several pharmaceutical firms to obtain liability insurance due to high damage awards forced them to leave the marketplace or self‐insure. This article details the history of the vaccine tax policy issues and updates the experiences of the financing mechanism. As the federal government attempts to broaden its role in the health care delivery system, the possibility of similar interventions exist.