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Hearing aids in but still not understanding words
Hearing Loss | Last Active: Nov 4 4:08pm | Replies (135)Comment receiving replies
@daveshaw The initial Inflation Recovery Act (IRA) 3 years ago included vision and hearing aid coverage under Medicare. It was a bipartisan issue. It was included because of the efforts of a lot of hearing advocates, in particular Lise Hamlin, the Policy Director of HLAA, who had been advocating for it for years. Unfortunately, in order to pass the legislation, the cost of the IRA had to be reduced and hearing coverage got cut out of the final law. There have been plenty of hearing advocates pushing for this issue for years. But Politics keeps getting in the way. Why AARP has not put its power behind the issue is beyond me. The other place this issue can be used is in the individual states. A few have gotten coverage for hearing aids of some amount, but not full coverage as I understand. In my state (PA) there has been bipartisan legislation for over a year to get coverage but it has trouble getting out of Committee, despite support from HLAA and the PA Academy of Audiologists. It is beyond me how hearing coverage is not considered medically necessary. It is one of our 5 senses that we all rely on to live fulfilling lives.
Replies to "@daveshaw The initial Inflation Recovery Act (IRA) 3 years ago included vision and hearing aid coverage..."
Thank you Mike. People get frustrated with HLAA because they have no idea how hard the organization works on these issues. If more people would start HLAA chapters, push advocacy, make sure they understand the process, etc. it would make a difference. Unfortunately, the huge majority of our population don't want to get involved. Sad, but true.
Love this quote: I just used it in the HLAA Chapter newsletter I publish.
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
Martin Luther King, …
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I couldn’t agree more with all your points. I did talk to someone in Washington that works for HLAA and he basically told me their entire group consists of 15 individuals including lobbyists and they are hopelessly underfunded.
He suggested I contact my Senators which I did this morning and as you noted the AARP organization had totally let their members down on this issue. There are millions of us in their organization but for some reason many of those people remain silent.
Only if we make our voices heard are we going to anything done. We vote more than any other demographic and as you know all Senators and even our crazy Congress need votes.
Let’s try to get people to come out from the shadows. It worked with the Mental Health issue and we can make it work for us. We just have to get organized and get motivated.