Deaf VS Insurance Coverage for Hearing Devices

"OMG How can you be deaf and be against Obama's Affordable Care Act?"

This is a question I get in regards to people thinking that because I'm deaf, I must believe that ObamaCare is the bee's knees. My insurance premiums have gone up, not down, due to ACA because I have to haver coverage for body parts I don't even have, like a vegina to be specific.

I know the reasoning is that they believe that with ObamaCare, my insurance will magically cover hearing aids and cochlear implants. Truth is almost all insurance plans will cover a cochlear implant and almost all insurance plans will cover the initial audiologist consultation and hearing test and did prior to ACA being passed.

But the problem is they don't cover hearing aids because they're listed by insurance providers as a cosmetic device rather than what they really are, which is a hearing prosthetic.

Then they ask "Ok so why don't you get a cochlear implant?"

Because of the reason I mention in the video below. To get the CI, I first have to trial hearing aids rather than using the affordable PSAP (Hearing Amplifiers). The hearing aids I require to trial with everything I'm required to qualify for the CI will cost me roughly $13K out of my own pocket. Then there's the copay of $6K for the cochlear implants themselves. So at the end of it all, close to $20K USD out of pocket costs that I simply just don't have.

The affordable care act or ObamaCare does NOT actually benefit the deaf nor the hard of hearing. It's a common mistake to think that it does. It's also a common mistake to think that the deaf getting a cochlear implant is monetarily accessible when the reality is that it's really and truly not.

Trust me, if I could get access to the path in order to get a cochlear implant, I'd be doing it, but financially it's simply impossible for me to obtain. If I was upper middle class or wealthy I'd already have a cochlear implant.

"Wait, hearing aids aren't covered by your insurance?"

Yeah, amazing shit, the vast majority of insurance providers will not cover hearing aids but the ones that do cover it are expensive as hell and still thusly not accessible for me financially.

I know where this misconception comes into play though.  For children under the age of 18, most insurance policies will cover hearing aids because for children, hearing aids aren't considered a cosmetic item but rather a prosthetic, and thusly are listed correctly so long as you're a minor.  But once you're 18, you're fucked.

Require a hearing aid in order to be able to get and keep work as a working adult?  Well you'll just have to work much harder and longer hours or be born into money otherwise you're not getting the listening devices you need to be a functioning member of society.

Oh you lost your leg?  Yeah, they'll cover a prosthetic leg.  Lose an arm?  They got ya covered.  Lose your hearing? AHahahaha, you're fucked now jackass!

"Why not get a hearing aid for a recycler?"

Common misconception that these are accessible.  $150 application fee, which yeah I can afford if I save money for a few months, but the problem is I know my application will be denied because I've read the criteria for qualification for various recycler organizations.

The basic gist is that I have to be either A) A minor that's already covered by basic insurance any damn way and thusly this is overkill or B) over the age of 60.  I'm only 33 years old.

Thusly, I'm not going to waste $150 USD on a fruitless cause knowing fully damn well that I'm simply just going to get denied anyway.  My financial resources are limited and I'm not a fucking charity.

"Well why not skip the hearing aid trial and go straight for the implant?"

I can't.  It's literally a requirement to trial high end, high tech hearing aids with all the bells and whistles.  I think it's a way for audiologists to squeeze as much money out of the deaf as they possibly can by selling us shit that won't work for us knowing fully well that we're just going to need the CI at the end of it all anyway.  Anything they can to milk more and more money out of someone that doesn't have it.

In short, the reason behind it is greed.  I'm pretty god damn positive an audiologist can test to tell if a hearing aid is going to work or not without the need for us having to trial an expensive as hell hearing aid.

And no it's not only me that has this issue with my specific type of hearing loss.  I know of other deaf people with different degrees of hearing loss, including a gal that was born deaf and now in her early 20's, diagnosed as "profoundly deaf" but still can't get a CI like she wants because of the hearing aid requirement being too costly.

Like "You stupid shit, we're fucking deaf, the hearing aid won't fucking work like you intend because we're still fucking deaf!"

I would throw a dictionary at audiologists and tell them "Hey, look up the definition of the word deaf", but they're audiologists, they should know fully fucking well what it means since they are the ones that diagnose us as deaf.

Conclusion

Just a message for audiologists and insurance companies.  First the insurance companies.  Hearing aids are not cosmetic, most people that need hearing aids don't want to be seen wearing them and typically try to hide them while using them, the very definition of "not cosmetic".

And now for the audiologists.  Stop trying to milk deaf people of every cent you can get out of us you greedy fucks!  This is why biohackers and transhumanists are soon to make your asses obsolete.