Pay it by ear: hearing aids are not covered by insurance

School days begin to repeat, for a typical teenager they must listen to the teacher, work on assignments, and go home. Students with hearing loss can be challenged and placed in confusing situations during this repetition. These situations are not helped by the lack of aiding or insurance coverage for medical necessities.

A sophomore at Liberty High School named Jaden Hartwell is like an ordinary teenager, but what sets him apart from the rest is his love for shooting and golfing. He also happens to have mild hearing loss. Hartwell expressed the costly price of hearing aids, he himself having Phonak hearing aids, which are typically between one thousand to four thousand dollars. He continued that some hearing aids may cost six hundred dollars to about seven thousand dollars.

Photo by Marina Hernandez Rodriguez

To further illustrate the cost, Medical News Today states that “ Hearing aids range significantly in cost, starting from about $1,000 and going up to as much as $6,000.” And that, “ Often, additional expenses include hearing test, follow-ups, and ongoing support

from healthcare professionals…”

Despite this costly expense, insurance companies do not cover hearing aids. They may cover the first examination ,but after that, people are financially on their own. Sadly, up to four out of a thousand children are born with hearing loss, and by the age of 12, over 20% of them have some kind of hearing loss whether that is severe, mild or moderate. Compared to the 3% of children who are born with visual impairment, hearing aids should be considered as standard healthcare just like glasses and be covered by insurance plans. Hartwell mentioned, “The government doesn’t look at covering standard healthcare.”

Additionally, the difficulties of the expenses are accompanied by the difficulties of being in a classroom. Students who suffer from a type of hearing loss can have difficulty paying attention to the teachers, especially when there is background noise. The act of watching a movie during class excites students, but Hartwell reported that when the teacher does play something over the class speakers, he has trouble picking up on some of the sounds coming from it. He also said that people may need to change their hearing aids once every three to four years, the cost of which quickly adds up.

Hearing aids aren’t an option for people who suffer from hearing loss, they are a necessity and should be covered by insurance.