I am not an economist or accountant, but it doesn’t take a degree to figure out that hearing loss has cost me and my family a mighty chunk of change through the years.
Without a thorough economic impact study, it’s difficult to determine the true cost of hearing loss to individuals. It’s a moving target with many variables – income of self and family, personality, upbringing, type and degree of hearing loss, home state or province, and willingness to embrace hearing loss and adopt technology.
The saying that no two snowflakes are the same also applies to those of us with hearing loss. On paper, my audiogram may be identical to that of a dental technician in Des Moines, but how she and I function and how we cope may be completely different. But one thing for sure – we both feel the financial pinch.
For fun (kind of), I did a quick exercise to tally the cash outlay for items needed to manage my own severe-to-profound hearing loss over the past two to three years. As I added it up, two things arose – the hair on the back of my neck and the bile in my throat.
$4000 Hearing Aids
175 Extended Service Warranty
80 Batteries
150 Neckloop
50 Mileage to/from Audiologist
30 Dry-Aid
75 Door Knocker
300 Alerting System
40 Shake-A-Wake
200 Hearing aid compatible phone
200 Hearing aid compatible cellphone
500 New TV for better captioning
50 Consumer Group Memberships
100 Hearing Loss Information Books
Add in the available credits (available in Ontario) -1500
Total Hard, Cold Cash: $ 4, 380.00!
But wait! There’s more! The above figure doesn’t take into account the time and effort – the in-kind cost – that are associated with having hearing loss. If time is money, let’s attach a cost of $1 to every 1 minute of time I spend on activities related to my personal hearing loss.
| TIME SPENT ON |
MINUTES PER DAY |
COST PER YEAR |
| Speechreading |
100 |
$ 36,500 |
| Asking for something to be repeated |
5 |
1,825 |
| Hearing healthcare appointments, including filling out forms to apply for applicable refunds |
300 |
|
| Explaining my communication needs to others (general) |
5 |
1,825 |
| Explaining why it’s unfair to have to pay $2 more than anyone else just because I need an ALD in live theatre |
50 |
|
| Explaining and pursuing effective communication in a work environment |
2 |
730 |
| Daily hearing aid care (changing batteries and wax guards) |
3 |
1,095 |
| Punching hearing aid to activate/deactivate t-switch | .5 |
183 |
| Turning captioning back on (after family has turned off when I leave the room) |
1 |
365 |
| Listening to bad hearing jokes when I tell people I’m hard of hearing |
50 |
|
| Stressing about hearing loss (Have I missed something important? Appeared stupid? Didn’t stand up for myself?) |
1 |
365 |
|
Sub-Total In-Kind Costs |
$ 43,288 |
|
|
Sub-Total Hard, Cold Cash |
4,380 |
|
|
WHOPPING TOTAL |
$ 47,668 |
Whoa, who knew? And this little exercise does not take into account the time and effort that my family, friends, clients and colleagues expend in order to communicate effectively with me.
I’m fortunate to have the means to pay for my hearing loss. Communicating is important to me; I demand quality technology and I’m willing to spend the necessary time to ensure optimal communication.
But what is the cost, the true impact, on someone who struggles emotionally with their hearing loss? The high price of hearing aids and other technology are deal-breakers for many people who have families, who have low income or who live on fixed pensions. If a hard of hearing senior decides against buying a hearing aid even though he needs one – what devastating cost does this impose on his personal safety, human engagement, and emotional wellbeing?
We need to work together – governments, industry and consumers – to help reduce the financial and emotional burden on people with hearing loss. Let’s make hearing aids and assistive technology more affordable. Let’s make aural rehabilitation a standard component of hearing health care.
If we don’t, the cost of poorly managed hearing loss will rise to the point where it is incalculable.
Hearing loss is one of our most common disabilities, yet one that is still largely ignored by our governments. Its financial wallop is not limited to individuals; there is a powerful ripple effect pending because the number of Americans and Canadians who have hearing loss is rising, fast. And most of them cannot afford it.
