WTF Hearing aids are worth more than their weight in than gold!

Grayma said:
It's all relative. If hearing aids allow him to perform a job that pays 70K a year and without the aids he can't do the same job, then it might be worth it to him.

If you have the skills to perform a job that pays 70K with or without HA, then maybe not.

If you don't have the skills for such a job, then almost certainly not worth it.
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Quite relative. Indeed. It's not always about a job (but that's a big factor, too) but everything else that makes wearing a hearing aid worthwhile (for me that is) such as playing ragtime piano, using telephones to talk with anybody, holding conversations with people around you, listening to music and talk radio shows, and so on. To me, if there were only a few hearing aids brands of good caliber and quality that cost around $10,000, I'd buy it. There wouldn't be any hesitancy on my part. No different from those who find spending $60,000 on a cochlear implant or spending $30,000 for an Esteem Envoy implantable hearing device be worthwhile to have. Just because one cannot use a hearing aid beneficially doesn't mean other people cannot and would not buy one of that price if given the opportunity. Quite the contrary. Even at $10,000 I'd consider that as a bargain when one sees the tradeoffs.

My last digital hearing aid lasted 13 years which turned out to be the equivalent of about $13 bucks a month. I don't look at the big price picture like many do but what I can get out of it over a stretch of several years and the return benefits I get out of it.
 
kokonut said:
Quite relative. Indeed. It's not always about a job (but that's a big factor, too) but everything else that makes wearing a hearing aid worthwhile (for me that is) such as playing ragtime piano, using telephones to talk with anybody, holding conversations with people around you, listening to music and talk radio shows, and so on. To me, if there were only a few hearing aids brands of good caliber and quality that cost around $10,000, I'd buy it. There wouldn't be any hesitancy on my part. No different from those who find spending $60,000 on a cochlear implant or spending $30,000 for an Esteem Envoy implantable hearing device be worthwhile to have. Just because one cannot use a hearing aid beneficially doesn't mean other people cannot and would not buy one of that price if given the opportunity. Quite the contrary. Even at $10,000 I'd consider that as a bargain when one sees the tradeoffs.

My last digital hearing aid lasted 13 years which turned out to be the equivalent of about $13 bucks a month. I don't look at the big price picture like many do but what I can get out of it over a stretch of several years and the return benefits I get out of it.
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That's $2000 so it's easier to come up with.

Your $10000 aid would need to last 65 years for the same value.
 
Bottesini said:
That's $2000 so it's easier to come up with.

Your $10000 aid would need to last 65 years for the same value.
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I don't see it that way. I see the overall value over the long term. Even if it lasted only several years I still got a lot of value out of it. And worth every penny because I benefitted from it.
 
Maybe cost is something that can be measured wtih a calculator, but value can only be measured by the individual.

Derek's turbo charged engines have no value to me. My son-in-law's shiny red truck has no value to me.
To me a vehicle is only transportation. I just want it to run, have enough seatbelts for my family and our foster boys, and for the air conditioning and heating to work. It can have a muffler or not, be pink, yellow, or green, be scratched dented, banged up, look pretty or look like a work truck- I do not care. It's just transportation for me.

I have a lot of books (between 8,000 to 10,000) and they are valuable to me, but to somebody else, they are a waste of space.
 
Grayma said:
Maybe cost is something that can be measured wtih a calculator, but value can only be measured by the individual.

Derek's turbo charged engines have no value to me. My son-in-law's shiny red truck has no value to me.
To me a vehicle is only transportation. I just want it to run, have enough seatbelts for my family and our foster boys, and for the air conditioning and heating to work. It can have a muffler or not, be pink, yellow, or green, be scratched dented, banged up, look pretty or look like a work truck- I do not care. It's just transportation for me.

I have a lot of books (between 8,000 to 10,000) and they are valuable to me, but to somebody else, they are a waste of space.
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Exactly! For me it has value and I find using a hearing aid is extremely beneficial. It serves a purpose for me. Others might scoff at it because they see no value in it but for me I see value even if it were the only few brands available that cost $10,000 because it works for me.
 
For me, the happiness and comfort of my kids was most important. I have been willing to find a way to pay for new HA's for them, most especially my son, but his words to me the other day even made my MIL stop getting onto my case. MIL kept saying I was an unfit mother to make my son miss out on hearing. Son basically said he would commit suicide if we forced him to wear HA's. HE understands that other people are fine with them. HE also understands that other people are fine with CI's. He does not believe it is fair of a parent to implant a child. He understands the argument regarding the whole "threshold levels and ages for obtaining speech" and feels that after seeing what his sister went through, and also seeing what countless other kids went through, both with HA's, CI's and those who went without. He said that the happiest kids were those that got to go without, but had the full support of their families and services. These kids were introduced to ASL as infants and gained speech later in their childhood (after 1st grade). My MIL understood what he was saying and said she respected his decision and then apologized to me.
 
I wonder too if the sky high price of HAs is due to the addition of pretty much "pretty" bells and whistles.........I mean the sound quality of my hearign aids from 20 years ago is the same as what I hear today.
 
I'd just finished paying for a pair of Oticon Agil mini-BTE's, cost me 5500$. Insurance companies up in Can usually have a max amount, usually ridiculously low, for ex $500/2 years. Before that I had Siemens CIC Music Pro ($3000i) and needed to replace those after just a few years. It's unreasonable/unfair that people who need HA's to work/live are not covered, but CI is.

Course shortly after that I lost my hearing overnight from SSHL and now they're sitting in their box. Explained to Oticon and the audio clinic but I couldn't get even a partial refund, and to try selling.. no clue.

Regarding the high prices, I heard Embrace Hearing has been working on the high cost of HA's buy offering new HA's for 300-700. .
 
xunixan -- Embrace Hearing is that you noticed this coverage, and that we were mentioned as a solution to high prices.

Hearing aid prices are getting out of hand, which helps to explain why only 25% of the population who might benefit, actually get hearing aids.

The cell phone analogy is a good one, and helps to explain why wholesale hearing aid costs are so high. But the real issue is with the distribution channel. When a hearing clinic sells a $5000 set of hearing aids, they probably paid around $1000 to the manufacturer, meaning they keep $4000 as profit.

That $4000 often covers follow up service for the life of the hearing aid -- but $4000 is a lot to pay for a handful of follow up visits (most people come back less than 3 times in the year after purchasing).

When people buy hearing aids online, they don't have the luxury of unlimited free follow-up care. But for many people, the chance to save $4000+ on the initial purchase, may be worth the inconvenience of a re-programming by mail.

Plus, if you've saved $4000, you can afford to put that money toward fee-for-service re-programming from a local professional (very unlikely to add up to anything close to $4000 over the life of the hearing aids).

Our most popular model is $1200 for two high-quality mini-BTE RIC that are comparable to what you'd get from a local professional for $3000+. They are made in Germany -- not China -- and come with a 45-day, no-questions asked return policy.
 
Reading...

I don't like it when the insurance companies try to label hearing aids as "cosmetics". How can they be "cosmetics"? I've seen that term in the contracts.
 
Barbaro said:
Reading...

I don't like it when the insurance companies try to label hearing aids as "cosmetics". How can they be "cosmetics"? I've seen that term in the contracts.
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That's a new one. Hadn't heard hearing aids described as cosmetics. What do they think we want them as accessories?! Just for the pretty colors, if we can get them? :roll: Anything to get out of covering it... I know our health insurance has never covered aids at all. They will cover the hearing tests. That's it. And originally they supplied me with a list of their recommended audiologists/dispensers to get the aids. Otherwise, I was on my own. I remember they used to say they covered cochlear implants, including the technology not just the surgery part, but the required level of deafness was very stringent. (I wouldn't qualify). I have read articles that some insurance companies are eliminating that as coverage as well... :hmm:
 
warpedpink said:
An article from the Huffington Post

Sam Tanzer: Americans Are Paying Too Much for Hearing Aids
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I'm not sure if it's slanted against audiologists for making a "buck" or not. :hmm: Or just me and how I read some of the statements in it. :eek3: My audiologist continues to get ongoing training, becoming expert in the aids she sells. And she only sells those from reputable companies who make good quality aids. Not all aids are good for all hearing losses and matching the right aid, and then doing the fine tuning to adjust to the person's needs, is critical. So, I would never go off buying the aids that "looked good" on the Net, and then expect the audiologist that I pull out of a yellow pages "hat," to make the aids work well for me. When the audiologist had no input as to which brand and model offered the best match to my hearing needs. Maybe my audiologist is unusual, but IMO, I need her and her expertise, and she is entitled to a decent living for that expertise.

She also handles the no interest 12 month loan paperwork and has been researching and working to find a less expensive aid that would do what I need it to do. It took her and the company developing the aid, over 3 years, to make that possible for me, at a price I could afford. So, there are audiologists out there who are not just in it to get rich off the consumer...and she does not make that much off selling the aids, yet gives free office visits for a full year for any adjustments, etc.

So, while we are being consistently ripped off by the high cost of everything, the over the top cost is a complicated combination of factors in our health care industry in this country and not just to be blamed on the end of the line direct provider, like an audiologist or doctor for medical care. At least, those are my thoughts and reaction to the article. :)
 
I just succumbed to buying new aids...

As I mentioned above, my audiologist has been trying to find an affordable replacement for my aids, which stopped working well for me 3 years ago. At that time what was available that would work for my hearing loss, was $6000 for two digital aids. Her job is to match my loss with the best aid for the money that would help me. And at that time, that was what was available. :eek3: My husband & I declined. The only way to afford new aids is to get one of those no interest loans that have to be paid off in 1 year. The audiologist facilitates that and gets approval right there in her office. She computed the resulting payments, which would have been $500 a month or so. We declined. We couldn't afford to pay for them outright nor could we afford that kind of monthly payment for a year. No way. :shock: So, gradually for these 3 years, my aids have given me less help. I am now really noticing what I can't hear with the aids any more, and they are maxed out for any adjustments my audiologist can do. So, being between a rock and a hard place, I thought I was stuck since the new aids were out of my price range. :(

I guess some hearing aid manufacturers are getting the word, with the lousy economy and health insurance not covering aids for the most part, that they had to come up with less fancy aids with fewer bells & whistles, that were affordable. It took this company 3 years, but they have just released a new model, behind the ear. Here's the link to what I'm getting:

Newest hearing aids tailored to your individual hearing environment and preference - ReSound Vea - ReSound -

They are half the cost quoted 3 years ago, have fewer bells & whistles, but I don't need them in any case. Shrug. (I couldn't get my purple again, but settled for "Expresso;" I did get my purple molds, though! :D). So, we can manage the payments for a year (my husband is due to retire in another year, on top of it, and we know once he retires, there's absolutely no way for me to get new aids). And if they aren't working well for me, I can return them at no cost to me, loan cancelled, etc. So I'm going to give them a try.

After my experience in ASL class last Wednesday, I have been *so* discouraged about communicating. I posted about that here:

http://www.alldeaf.com/2070892-post5531.html

I felt desperate after that experience and coming face to face how I really have no current replacement way to communicate, and that these new aids seemed to be my best alternative. And so I made the decision the next day at the audiologist's office. I am too afraid not to grab onto the technology if I can get it. :hmm:

That's not to say I will stop studying and learning ASL. I will continue and also try the Deaf Seniors group that meets twice monthly locally, and so on. These aids *will* be my last, given retirement and a serious drop in finances, in another year. But hopefully I will get some lengthy use out of the new aids, if my hearing doesn't drop drastically (of course, no guarantees about that :|), and more time to be able to learn enough to communicate and have conversations in ASL. :)

So, my life's journey continues...
 
You don't always have a choice in matters. I'm going to be working with the public in my new position and my Microtech Avail (Starkey) just aren't going to cut it. I'll be getting Widex Fusion in the fall $2100 each.....


Laura
 
If I were employable and younger, I would feel less like I had a choice, I guess, to maintain employment. Now, at my age, being unemployable due to hearing loss for a decade, I thought I finally now had the opportunity/choice to come to adapt to my hearing loss, and not put ourselves in debt over & over again for new aids when my hearing dropped and the old ones weren't sufficient any more. Because the only world I know is still the hearing world, although it is often impatient and rude to me, and often excludes me, I guess I don't feel I have a choice after all. I *want* to hear as much as possible. I *want* to connect with people, Hearing, Deaf, HOH as much as possible. I *want* every single tool I can get my hands on. :mrgreen:
 
Talking about supply and demand, but don't forget about company buy what called "bulk purchase". Computer components as for example, let say Intel make i7 processors chip and willing to sell 5000 chips for a deep discount price compare to if you buy one chip, you know? Larger the quantities, deeper the discounts. HA are not like that because they are not sure if they are able to make it that many due to small selling point.

Another thing, for those who still have full time job and have Flex Spending plan, you can use that to help out buying hearing aids. This help in both way, to spread out payment plan in one year plus it's pre-taxed, this will help alot with getting refund from taxes.

just my 2 cents...advise.
 
It all makes me so glad that I am no longer and candidate for HA's or a CI.
 
KristinaB said:
It all makes me so glad that I am no longer and candidate for HA's or a CI.
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I'll never feel that way. HAs may be expensive but the gift of hearing is priceless. I love every second of it.



Laura
 
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