Fight for Hearing Aid Coverage in Massachusetts
Wednesday November 4, 2009
The Boston Herald reports on an effort to get insurance companies in Massachusetts to cover hearing aids for children. Massachusetts House Bill 910 (see Adobe PDF file) which would require insurance companies to pay for a good chunk of the cost of hearing aids, is opposed by the insurance companies. The insurance companies are using the standard argument that adding coverage for hearing aids will raise the cost of insurance for all.
It’s sad, but it’s true…the more things that insurance companies are required to cover, the more expensive health insurance becomes.
Let’s consider of the 150 kids born a year with hearing loss in the state.
Some of them will be profoundly deaf and require cochlear implants (at ten+ times the cost of hearing aids) which MA insurers already pay for.
Some may be born to Deaf parents who chose to just use ASL.
Hearing aids last several years. The insurers would not be buying very many aids each year.
If you do not aid a child early, you will be paying for an interpreter in school at the cost of $50k per year to your school district.
Hearing aids for children should not require debate at all. We should be ashamed of ourselves for waiting this long.
Actually – the cost is extremely low – this is a very small dollar bill. The average insured would incur about a 16cent/month increase. Are you sure you want so say no to these kids? They aren’t what is driving up costs for healthcare. This is a basic necessity.