I read an article over the weekend that simply said that our parents will live longer if we spend time with them. It supported this statement with statistics from a study found in JAMA Internal Medicine. Isn’t it funny that we would need to be reminded of something that is so obvious?
I’ve been living with my parents for the last six years. I treasure the time I spend with them. We are creating memories that I would not have had I not decided to move back to Southern Illinois to help them out. It has also placed me in a position to witness many of the changes they are going through as they grow older.
My father has been having difficulty hearing – a problem that has increased every year I’ve been here. After weeks of going over the other health issues associated with hearing loss my mother and I finally talked him into seeing an audiologist.
He was tested, but he didn’t believe the diagnosis. It took almost a year to talk him into seeing another audiologist. The second audiologist gave him the same diagnosis. He was deaf in his right ear and would be soon in his left ear. He wasn’t hearing and hadn’t for years – he was lip reading.
It can be difficult to understand that you’re deaf if you can still hear some sounds – the neighbors car starting or the dog barking. I tried to explain by making a comparison – “Dad, it’s like when they tell you that you are legally blind – you can still see some things, but not everything you should. You can hear some low decibel sounds, but that is all.”
I don’t think he was totally convinced, but he decided to get the hearing aids. He balked when they told him the cost was going to be $7000 or $3500 and ear. Medicare doesn’t pay for hearing aids and sadly there are few options available for someone with a severe hearing loss.
For two weeks we investigated payment options and agencies that might help. Then we received another surprise. In only two weeks the price for the hearing aids had increased to $16,898! That is $8449 an ear! The hearing aid provider agreed to hold them at the price they originally quoted, but for only another two weeks.
A call to other hearing aid providers verified that they had all increased their prices by the same amount. If we waited to see if there was an agency that might help us get the hearing aids he needed, we could end up paying over 50 percent more than we were originally quoted. Even with advances in technology, I doubt that anyone can justify a price increase of that amount.
Isn’t this much like the recent debacle involving Turing Pharmaceuticals raising the price of the drug Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 a tablet overnight? Greed in the healthcare industry is forcing people to decide between their health and food or housing.
My siblings and I agreed to help pay for my father’s hearing aids, but we would not have been able to afford the $16,898 price tag. According to a 2013 JAMA Internal Medicine report people with hearing loss are 24 percent more likely to develop dementia. Is that a risk anyone wants to take? Going forward those who are faced with that price tag will have to pay it or be faced with not only hearing loss, but also health issues such as dementia. Something must be done!
