Health Insurance Question
 

As most of you folks who have met me and my younger brother in person, we're both hard of hearing, and we have to use a hearing aid to help us hear.

My question is, why does the insurance companies, specifically health insurance, does not cover the costs of either replacements or new purchases such as hearing aids, hearing aid molds, etc?

It has pretty much bothered me for quite some time, and I was discussing this issue to my co-worker during work today, and I said something along the lines of "Well, health insurance would help foot the bill for someone who has to have surgery for the arm, or a person who has it's leg amputated, and have a replacement.

Damn good question. I always assumed health insurance did cover hearing problems. Guess they have health care, dental and vision but hearing kinda gets the short stick if you will.

Say what? Sorry I'm hard of reading.

Usually they don't. I know that when I was younger, and was on my mother's health insurance, it didn't cover it.

I don't know if it was a selection of coverage plan, but considering that she has 2 boys that are hard of hearing, I'm more than positive she would have selected that plan if it was available.

So I'm guessing that health insurance companies these days don't do diddly shit.

I would've thought that it'd be a covered expense if you hadn't said otherwise.

I wonder if they exclude hearing because they exclude vision from most plans. If they give you a hearing aid, they pretty much also have to give me glasses. Since over the half the nation wears glasses, I wonder if they made the financial decision to exclude vision, and then hearing became excluded so they didn't have a discrepency in sensory aids. Anyone out there know if health insurance covers smelling aids, tasting aids, or touch aids?

It's because insurance companies are evil.

That I can agree.

... followed closely by hospitals in general! In my not so humble opinion, they're the personification of evil! Especially conglomerate chains that have driven their subsidiary hospitals/clinics into the ground. Even worse when the son of baal owns the insurance company that its employees have insurance through and still continue to charge outrageous premiums for substandard coverage.

You would be correct in thinking that I, unfortunately, work for said organization... for now.

t0rn
-=-

Oh God, I hate it that I know the answer to this.

Basically, most insurance companies are required to cover anything Medicare covers, at a minimum. Medicare doesn't cover hearing aids, because...well....basically most people on Medicare need hearing aids. They don't see it as a medical issue as much as a natural decline in functioning. So, due to old people being...well, old, you get screwed at your age because non-Medicare coverage plans only cover what they have to.

That's the nutshell, but of course, your mileage may vary.

Well, they are in business to make money. I'm sure there is an insurance company that is selling policies to cover this type of thing, but you may not want to see the premium.

If you are needing a hearing aid, find a local LIONS club and ask them about the hearing program through LIONS International. We just heard about this during the summer and I don't have the details, but I know there is something out there.

LIONS District H-Missouri
Leader Dogs for the Blind chairman

Weird how they don't cover the sences.

Well, somebody should tell the Medicare that it is a medical issue, IMHO. What is the difference between someone losing their hand/leg and a different person losing their hearing?

Both are different, I'm aware of that, but to hear is very impotant as is to have a hand/leg, don't you think? And age isn't an issue for me since I am 25 and my younger brother is 18. So not all of it is a natural decline due to aging.

But if we are going to talk about age, shouldn't Medicare allow that it covers the hearing issue, just to help to make hard of hearing/deaf people lives easier, regardless of age? It would at least make the old folks' lives much more easier if they have that luxury of having that being covered.

I think we've all lost sight of what the f**k "insurance" means. Insurance is supposed to cover UNEXPECTED costs. Your yearly checkup, hearing aids, glasses, etc are not UNEXPECTED. They should have been planned for since you knew they were coming.

Attitudes like this is exactly why insurance is so damn expensive.