It's about access!

For a young child, gaining access to spoken language is critical for learning and development. For many of those children born with permanent hearing losses, hearing aids are by far the best option to help them develop auditory and language skills on par with their normal hearing peers. However, families are often quite shocked to find out that the vast majority of private insurance plans specifically exclude hearing aids from being covered. Working families in Washington are left scrambling to pay for these devices for their children (which can range upwards of $2000/ear) and many are forced to utilize state Medicaid benefits in order to acquire them due to the high cost.

It is the position of the WCHAA that working families in Washington should not have to consider using Medicaid funding in order to afford hearing aids for their children, just because their private insurance decided they will not provide hearing aid coverage.

Because fewer and fewer clinics are accepting Medicaid patients, being able to utilize private insurance for hearing services has a significant advantage for families--greater access to hearing care!

Through collaborative efforts with families, professionals and the public, we hope you will support our efforts to convince the legislators in Olympia why Washington should join with the 20 other states that require health benefit plans to provide hearing aid coverage for children.