"My mom can't afford hearing aids. The pandemic reminded us why she needs them."
One in eight people in the United States over the age of 12 have some degree of hearing loss in both ears.
Bobbi Dempsey, Washington Post
The Importance of Hearing
Hearing is essential for maintaining relationships, connections with friends, and experiencing life events. Hearing makes it possible to engage, listen, laugh, and enjoy many things that help shape your quality of life. As one of our most important senses, the ability to hear enables us to connect to the world for many vital reasons. As such, maintaining your ear health and advocating for treatments for those who cannot hear is crucial.
The Problem
Hearing aids remain expensive. Although you can get a pair of hearing aids for a few hundred dollars online or at the store, if you want a custom fit, quality pair from an audiologist, expect to pay anywhere from $2,200 to $7,000 for a pair. The costs associated with developing a hearing aid include research and development, as well as the technology behind the hearing aid. The big problem? Hearing aids are not seen as necessary by insurance companies, including Medicaid.
In nearly half of US states, hearing aids are not covered by Medicaid, or other insurance companies if you are over 21.
Arkansas, Connecticut, Illinois, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island are the only states that require insurance companies to cover hearing aids for adults.
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
So what's the real reason insurance companies won't cover the cost?
Insurance companies work by taking the cost of an uncommon, but insurable risk, and spreading it over a large group of people. This is to help make sure that the insurance company makes money by creating the criteria themselves for what's insured.
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Hearing loss, on the other hand, is a common risk. Individuals with hearing loss will eventually make a claim, and the insurance companies will not make a profit because there are a bunch of people who need coverage. Most insurance companies including Medicare do not cover hearing aids, and only a few cover the cost of hearing exams.
The Solution
What can I do? Are there additional
resources available?
People's ability to hear should not be a profit discussion for insurance companies. All hearing aids should be free, and you should not have to pay to hear. To improve access and affordability of hearing aids, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine issued a report with a series of recommendations for how consumers engage with hearing healthcare in the United States.
There are additioal resources under the Resources page including Ways You Can Receive Funding and Donate.