Liability Protections for Emergency Volunteer Health Practitioners and Entities

Twenty-four states and D.C. have statutes that extend some level of immunity to groups and/or organizations providing charitable, emergency, or disaster relief services, although these laws varied greatly among states

The Affordable Care Act: U.S. Vaccine Policy and Practice

When fully implemented, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, amended by the Health and Education Reconciliation Act will extend health insurance coverage to 94 percent of Americans while establishing a comprehensive set of strategies to improve care and contain costs. The central provisions of the Act – guaranteed affordable and accessible coverage – take effect January 1, 2014. Important insurance reforms aimed at improving coverage become effective before that date, as do a series of investments aimed at improving the accessibility and quality of health care. This report has several aims: 1) to examine how the laws address vaccine policy and practice; 2) to assess how access to vaccines and immunization services will be affected; and 3) to assess the extent to which health reform addresses recommendations of the National Vaccine Advisory Committee\u27s (NVAC) Vaccine Finance Working Group (VFWG) 2008