Currently hearing aids are not covered by almost all insurances except two in the United States. What insurance programs try to pass off as ‘insurance’ for hearing aids is actually a third party they contract who offers a ‘discount’. This is a marked up price with service stripped out in order to reflect the discount.
These are a complicated medical device. And just like a car needs a mechanic at least once a year, these medical devices need maintenance at least twice a year from a professional. These jacked up discount programs that strip out that service unless you pay for it simply contributes to this medical device not being used appropriately and truly treat hearing loss.
40-44% of dementia and Alzheimer’s is being contributed to untreated hearing loss in recent studies. Because it is too expensive for people on fixed incomes to be able to afford, they shuffle this into the pile of invisible illnesses that they cannot afford to treat, and so many people lose parents and grandparents before they have to lose them because they simply fade away. They disconnect because they do not hear what’s happening around them and are no longer part of the family because they can’t understand what’s being said. They’re cognitive processing declines so even when the few family members who are kind enough to get up close and shout so that they can hear, is so slow from being left alone that it doesn’t make enough of a difference by that point.
Please mandate insurance companies to convert medical hearing devices for at a minimum moderate/severe/profound hearing loss.