Reply #18: That's a good goddamned question. I'm almost 42 and have [View All]

worn hearing aids since age 20. Private insurance has never, ever covered one penny of their costs. Medicaid covers them (or at least, they did when I was on it twelve years ago, don't know if that's the case now), but they only cover one even if you need them for both ears, as I do.

My latest pair I got three years ago and my boss had to co-sign for the loan to get them, which he gladly did because I needed them in order to function at work. They were nearly two grand apiece, and that's without any extra bells and whistles. I'm still paying the goddamned things off nearly four years later, because their fucking finance charges are horrendous and most of my payments go toward the interest and finance charges and not the principal. Otherwise, I would have had them paid off two years ago. It seems I'm just spinning my wheels, because the more I pay, the more I seem to owe. It scares the hell out of me, because if these aids wear out before I've paid this fucking loan off, I won't be able to get another one and there's no way in hell I could afford them.

I truly wish I could afford the new digital kinds that filter out background noise, but there's just no way. I can't wear my aids in a public place or large gathering, because it amplifies EVERYTHING, with no filtering, and it's just too damned much.

I truly would like to know why the fucking insurance companies don't cover at least some of this, it truly pisses me off.