CCHCC's Alert about the Hearing Health Crisis
Dear friend,
 Yesterday, Champaign County Health Care Consumers and our Medicare Task Force held a press conference to discuss the crisis of access to affordable hearing health care in our community and a recently released national study that depicts hearing health problems as a significant public health issue.
Earlier this summer, the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine) released its report, Hearing Health Care for Adults: Priorities for Improving Access and Affordability. The report confirms the problems that CCHCC's Medicare Task Force has documented locally, which primarily affect seniors living on low, fixed incomes – most people who could benefit from hearing aids are unable to afford them, and frequently suffer in silence, become isolated, and have negative health and social impacts as a result of untreated hearing loss.
Here are some surprising facts:
- Medicare insurance doesn’t cover hearing aids.
- Yet more than half of adults in their seventies and more than 75% of adults ages 80 and older have hearing loss.
- The average retail price for a pair of hearing aids in 2013 was $4,700, typically with a pair of hearing aids ranging anywhere from $3,300 to $6,000.
- Hearing aids typically have to be replaced every 5 to 7 years.
Check out local media coverage of the press conference:
 The report from the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine put together 12 recommendations that encompass a wide range of approaches to address the hearing health care crisis. CCHCC supports these recommendations, but we also know these solutions will take time. Too much time. They will take legislation, technological innovation, and a societal change in how we view hearing loss not as an individual’s condition but as a public health issue. In the mean time, there is a very real need for quality, affordable hearing aids.
The Medicare Task Force is calling on our community to be part of that solution. We have high quality local medical providers and hospitals. We are home to a world class flagship university and to a booming tech industry including our own Research Park. Let’s find a way to bridge the gap and get quality and affordable hearing aids to those who need it.
If you are interested in working on this issue with us, please join us at our next Medicare Task Force meeting on Thursday, August 18 at 11:30 a.m. at the Presence Center for Health at 410 E. University Ave. in Champaign.
Stay tuned as we continue to work with consumers, advocacy groups, legislators, medical providers and other stakeholders to address the national hearing health care crisis in our community.
Sincerely,
Claudia Lennhoff
Executive Director
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