Hearing Aids

[maciec]

My FIL has the worst hearing and he refuses to get a hearing aid ~ Just because it's not a top priority. He knows that he needs one and tells us all of the time.

So for Christmas we were thinking of buying him one - just a cheap enhancer so that he can try it out to see what he is missing.

Does anyone have any experiences with hearing aids that they can share. I found one in the Heartland catalog for $20.

I don't want to spend a lot of money on something he's not going to use.

HELP!!!

 

[bicker]

You may end up bringing about a result contrary to your intention. We just over 250 times as much on my wife's hearing aides, which is about twice as much as we wanted to spend, and perhaps twice as much as we had to spend, but based on her experience with under-$1000 hearing aides, we're better off spending twice as much as spending half as much -- much less spending less than a half of a percent as much.

The problem with cheap hearing aides is that they amplify everything, including the noise. My wife found that that made it even harder to hear what people were saying than without the hearing aides.

 

[golfgal]

It takes a long while to get used to hearing aids and I also think that buying an amplifier for him is going to make it worse. He is going to get the impression that everything will sound like that with the hearing aids. A good set of hearing aids, digital, is going to run at least $4500-5000. Does he have that kind of money to spend on them? Insurance WON'T cover a dime of them, nor will they cover the exams for them unless he has an underlying medical reason for the hearing tests. They will help him IF they type of hearing loss he has can be helped by aides (not all hearing loss can). The intent is good, but it isn't a simple solution if the money isn't there. Oh, and batteries run about a dollar a piece and they last for maybe a week at a time. My guess is that he knows he needs them but doesn't want to spend the money on them.

 

[maciec]

Thank you so much for the replies. FIL thinks that his hearing loss is from being on a carrier when he was in the Navy many years ago. They don't have 5k to spend on a hearing aid. I never thought that they would cost that much.

I know that it's very frustrating for him to not be able to hear and it's frustrating for our kids (5 & 2) when Pappy can't hear them.

 

[bicker]

My wife is checking at work on Monday... her new company may cover some portion of her hearing aides. Also, we are "covering" about half the cost with funds we contributed to a medical expense plan, which reduces the effective cost by about 30% since we don't pay income tax on that money.

I thought you could still get good digital hearing aides for $3000... we were really surprised when the bill came to $5000. Are the days of good $3000 hearing aides over?

 

[golfgal]

My wife is checking at work on Monday... her new company may cover some portion of her hearing aides. Also, we are "covering" about half the cost with funds we contributed to a medical expense plan, which reduces the effective cost by about 30% since we don't pay income tax on that money.

I thought you could still get good digital hearing aides for $3000... we were really surprised when the bill came to $5000. Are the days of good $3000 hearing aides over?

The bigger the hearing aid the less expensive they are. I think the larger ones that go behind your ear are probably still in the $3000 range. The ones that fit in your ear canal completly are more like $6500. I have the smallest ones that don't fit in your ear canal and they were $5000 not quite 2 years ago.

 

[disneymcgraw]

I paid 5,000 for my hearing aids about 4 years ago. They are definitely not cheap but the benefits outweigh the cost for me.