This article highlights how hearing loss is both an invisible problem and one widely ignored by insurance.
Because I'm not a candidate for hearing aids (my hearing loss would not be altered by them), I've never really paid attention to the devices. I never knew their cost.
I did know, however, that they are not covered by insurance. To work where I do, insurance has always been mandated by law. No choice. I want a job, I pay for insurance. I get to choose between 3 plans - the cheap, covers nothing plan, the moderate plan that covers some stuff, and the premium plan that covers a little bit more. I always scan all three policies each year at renewal time, and there are a lot of things not covered even by the premium plan: contraception, breast reduction (although breast enlargement is covered as well as breast re-construction), adult vaccinations, certain durable medical devices, frames for corrective eye lenses, and hearing aids for anyone over the age of 18.
But I'd always been under the impression that hearing aids weren't expensive. I had a friend who sold them who always said they were reasonable - cheaper than eyeglasses. Maybe his were. Not needing them, I never looked.
I've also known hearing loss is far more common than most people realize.
Hearing is one of the 5 major senses, and contributes towards our well-being. The ability to hear gives us access to the rest of society. I know Deaf Culture has created a subculture of the Deaf, they consider themselves a minority group, and it's a very vital and alive culture, but that still doesn't bring them into the mainstream of society. I like that they focus on what they can do rather than what they can't, but I'm not part of the Deaf Culture. I came into my hearing loss too old to integrate easily into Deaf Culture.
All hearing impaired/deaf people lose out on a lot of pop culture, music memes, going to the theater (very few live performances have interpreters and when they do, it's hard to both watch the performance and try to locate and watch the interpreter), going to the movies (very few movie theaters offer closed captioning), concerts (what's the point? It's all music and people making really weird and meaningless movements on stage and then acting like they've done something amazing - and maybe they have, but we couldn't hear it), and YouTube. YouTube is filled with videos that are understandable only if you can hear. There are rarely transcripts or closed captioning. And that brings us to internet news videos - very like YouTube in that there is rarely a summary or a transcript and even more rarely closed captioning.
All of these things are hearing dependent:
Music
Live theater
Opera
Dance
Concerts
Movies
YouTube
Internet News Videos
OK, dances, which are mostly music, can be enjoyed by the hearing impaired and deaf perhaps more than the hearing because they can feel the music for dancing and still communicate. That still leaves out a lot of the things people commonly talk about. I know I'm generally last when it comes to discussing movies because I wait for them to come out on DVD and watch them with closed captioning.
Health insurance does not consider hearing loss, even traumatic hearing loss, to be a medical condition unless infection or cancer is involved. Insurance will pay for antibiotics and chemo and cancer surgery because the hearing loss is considered a side effect and not the primary issue.
Treatments for hearing impairment in adults are often not covered by insurance and - in my experience - doctors don't tell patients about the treatments available. Doctors make the assumption that because it's not covered by insurance the patient doesn't need to know about the treatment or that the patient can't afford treatment so they "kindly" don't inform the patient. That last is what happened to me.
When I was involved in the incident that led to my permanent hearing loss, instead of receiving the anti-oxidants, corticosteroids and emergency surgery to repair the ruptured inner ear fluid compartment within 48 hours of the injury, I was told there was no treatment available. And because the internet was still new and expensive and probably didn't have this information online yet, I had no real way of finding this information out in a timely manner. I did, eventually, find the information and by then, it was too late and the hearing loss I have is both permanent and worse than it should have been.
Years later, when I saw the doctor again and told him I'd learned I could have had my hearing restored nearly completely, he confessed that he hadn't told me about them because he thought I couldn't afford the treatment. That was true, to a point. I would have found a way to afford the treatment.
It's not considered malpractice because what he did was considered standard care, and it's not as if being hearing impaired is like being really disabled.
I think, if I need special devices to get through an ordinary day that the average person not only doesn't need but probably doesn't know exists, then it qualifies as a disability. Telephones, for instance. I can't use a plain telephone without assistive devices on it such as TDD/TTY (also called textphone and minicom), TRS, IP Relay, captioned telephones, SMS text messaging, videophones, video relay, video remote interpreting, and voice to text/text to voice programs such as Dragon Naturally Speaking and Interact-AS. I often can't hear the phone ringing, so attaching a flashing light alert, keeping it on me so I feel the vibration, or training Itzl and Xoco to alert (except they are slow and it often then goes to voice mail which I can't hear), or relying on people around me to tell me the phone's ringing. None of these devices, services, or programs are cheap and none are covered by insurance or disability.
That's just with a phone.
Imagine not being able to hear the doorbell, the timer on your oven, the alarm clock, the back-up beeps from trucks and SUVs, police and ambulance sirens, smoke and fire alarms. There are devices that can help with these things, everything from a living dog to mechanical thing s like flashing lights and vibrating alarms.
Imagine not being able to hear other people talking, particularly in classroom/lecture settings, political speeches, meetings, picnics, family reunions, dinners, and other social occasions. The person sitting off to the side, smiling and nodding, isn't necessarily anti-social or stupid. They could be there because while they can't hear, they can still see.
Imagine going with friends to movies, concerts, and plays and then dinner afterwards to talk about them, and because you couldn't hear the movie, concert, or play, you smile and nod. Even if your friends know you're hearing impaired, they eventually stop inviting you because you can't participate fully.
There are devices that allow the hearing impaired (but not the fully deaf) hear some of this. There's the FM system that wirelessly picks up and transmits the sound back to a receiver. There's the audio induction loop that works with people who have hearing aids or cochlear implants, and the infrared system that works with hearing aids and cochlear implants that have telecoil technology in them.
I have, on occasion, used the FM system, but it only works for me if I'm close enough to see the speaker and lip read. Between what I can hear on the FM pick-up and what I see of body language and lip reading, I can generally piece together what's being said.
The other two don't work for me.
I don't use sign language because I'm not very familiar with it and I don't know anyone who uses it so I can practice. This isn't uncommon when hearing loss happens late in life, as it did with me. Lip reading is not terribly accurate and has lots of pitfalls - mustaches, the speaker turning away, accents and slang, being too far away, bad lighting all contribute to lip reading failure or success.
I'm also very fortunate to live in one of the countries that allows hearing impaired and deaf people to drive. That would really contribute to isolation and feeling disabled.
But, as is pointed out in the linked article above, hearing impairment and deafness are not treated as disabilities by insurance and it's an invisible disability in society, with people preferring to believe that instead of being hard of hearing or deaf that you are rude or snobbish or stand-offish or stupid.