© 2008
Hearing Loss and the Economy
By Pearl Feder, L.C.S.W.
Diplomat in Clinical Social Work
A new year and a jobless rate that has not been seen in well over 15 years is bound to have its effects on the hearing impaired and deaf population and other disability communities as well. We are just beginning to see the domino effect around the world, though we’ve been officially in a recession for well over a year.
I can’t begin to imagine how many programs are going to be cut due to this recession and how many of these programs are going to affect all of us with hearing loss? I do know that hearing impaired and visually impaired children attending schools across the
I believe that those of us with hearing loss and parents of children with hearing loss are going to be shut out of our ability to afford hearing aids. The price of hearing aids has always been a major issue for us, even before the recession. However, the cost of hearing aids for the unemployed parent or the unemployed hearing impaired adult is going to mean we cannot even consider the purchase.
Most recently I came across a family of 5 children of which three are hearing impaired as well as the mom. The family lives in a shelter and cannot afford hearing aids. Medicaid will not cover the expenses. I referred the parent to Hear Now but there is an application fee of $200 for a pair of hearing aids and no guarantee that they will be qualified (though I believe they will).
The 7 year old is my client and she has never been aided. She is repeating first grade, has poor speech, poor academics and stuck in a world without sound and no way for the parents to purchase her hearing aids.
Vocational Rehab is turning cases away as they are inundated with many cases and little money. So what do we do with these cases? I look for donors. I literally knock on doors of Audiologists and professionals I have worked with to donate their time and equipment to giving these kids their hearing back.
We all should be asking ourselves, why are we allowing this to happen? If a child had a vision problem and needed glasses, the cost is approximately 1/8 of the hearing aids.
State vocational rehab offices are going to see cutbacks as well and that may mean either less purchases or no purchases of hearing aids for their clients. So what do we do? I’ve always believed in collective writing to our lawmakers. I believe hearing aids should be fully covered by insurance companies and, if that’s not possible, then I feel the prices of hearing aids should be regulated by the government.
We all have choices but in order to put those choices in place we have to be proactive. I strongly encourage you to write your senators and congress people and ask them to provide hearing aids for everyone who needs them. Below are links to access your Senators and Congress people. Do it for yourself, do it for all of us. Be proactive and help bring about change.
Senators
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
Congress
https://ssl.capwiz.com/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt?command=congdir