Wedding Processions and the Case for Universal Hearing Aid Insurance

Abstract

Hearing loss has adverse effects and is most detrimental during early years for its impact on learning in general and language acquisition in particular. While not a cure, hearing aids are the only practical solution to hearing loss available today. Yet, according to the US Department of Health and Human Service's National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), most people who need hearing aids do not have them largely due to the high cost (NIDCD). For example, barely 15 percent of young adults with hearing loss who need hearing aids wear them (NIDCD). Unfortunately, despite the acute necessity for hearing amplification for those with hearing loss, hearing aids are either not covered or minimally covered by most private health insurance plans or by Medicare. Consequently, many of those who critically need hearing aids cannot afford them. Disturbingly, in America, access to hearing aids depends on socioeconomic status. Therefore, in order to reduce the impact of socioeconomic gap on those with hearing loss in America, this article proposes a federal mandate for uniform hearing aid insurance coverage for each person twenty-one years of age or younger.