Sight & Hearing Association

	- Mar 2005 (View past health issues)
Financial Help for Hearing Aids

It has been forever frustrating that when people have a hearing loss and need to get a hearing aid, it is not covered by insurance. No other "disability" has this same problem. For example, if you are paralyzed and can't walk, a wheelchair is covered. So why, if you can't hear, is there no financial help available?

There may be help on the horizon. A bill, introduced in the House by Rep. Jim Ryun (R, Kansas), would provide a $500 tax credit per hearing aid purchased for adults 55 years or older and for hearing-impaired children up to age 18. Known as H.R. 414, the Hearing Aid Assistance Tax Credit Act has 34 co-sponsors in the House. Senator Norm Coleman (R, Minnesota) is expected to reintroduce companion legislation in the senate in early spring. Hopes are high that the bill will become law in 2005.

The hearing aid tax credit would help countless Americans who need hearing instruments, but simply cannot afford them. According to the Hearing Industries Association, the benefits of reducing special education costs for children through increased hearing aid usage are immense, as are the benefits of minimizing psychological and mental disorders associated with untreated hearing loss in older adults.

If this is something you feel is important, contact your representative in support of H.R. 414.

Here's how to find the contact information for your legislators: http://www.congress.org

The Hearing Industries Association also has sample letters you can send to your legislators at http://www.hearing.org/public