By BitcoDavid
I just learned that only 2 states out of 50 have laws mandating hearing aid coverage. Even so, those laws are ridden with loopholes allowing insurance companies leeway in opting out of providing the coverage. An entry level hearing aid, the Siemens Motion 300, costs 16,00 bucks. A top of the line model can go as high as 3,000. And that’s for each ear.
Cynthia Dixon, who writes 4 eyes, 4 ears, and has been so helpful to DeafInPrison.com, informs me that many HoH adults are forced to turn to vocational rehab, in the hopes that they will provide what health insurance won’t.
A member of the FaceBook group, Deaf and Hard of Hearing – Kat Pol, is endeavoring to start a letter writing campaign to bring awareness of this issue to the public and legislators.
DeafInPrison.com supports this effort. Like so much else in the world of Health Care, the ability to hear and communicate should be treated as a basic Human right, and not a privilege of wealth.
BitcoDavid is a blogger and a blog site consultant. In former lives, he was an audio engineer, a videographer, a teacher – even a cab driver. He is an avid health and fitness enthusiast and a Pro/Am boxer. He has spent years working with diet and exercise to combat obesity and obesity related illness.
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deafinprison.com 
20 states require hearing aid coverage for children, only three of those states also require it for adults: http://www.asha.org/advocacy/state/issues/ha_reimbursement/
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Yes, I should have made that more clear. It is the adults that we are talking about here. Thank you for the comment.
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I have hearing aid insurance, but I pay for it separately. I get it through my State of Alaska health insurance and sometimes I contemplate that I may pay as much for it as I get from it – so sometimes it seems to me like it is a savings plan. I get up to 80% of $2k covered very three years. My last hearing aid cost $3k and with the iCom and remote it cost $4k. That was one aid. I’m fortunate that MRC helped cover $1K. And, YES! I found it! My roommate apparently picked it up during one of her regular housecleaning frenzies and put it in a place I’d have NEVER found it if she hadn’t vaguely remembered moving it.
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Oh, that’s right, Marsha. I remember you telling me you lost yours. I’m glad you found it, I only hope you didn’t go out and cough up 4 grand for a new one, in the mean time.
BTW – is there a return policy where you could recoup your losses if you had bought a new one?
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BTW, love the jeweled hearing aid! It is giving me ideas – only mine doesn’t have anything you can see…
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Do you know Shanna Groves? (http://lipreadingmom.com/). She’s the designer hearing aid Guru. I’d be glad to hook you two up.
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Yes, I know her, but you still can’t see my hearing aid in my ear. It is a BTE (behind the ear) that is small and the hearing aid bud does not fill up my ear.
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