State budget cuts are not only affecting jobs, but also services to citizens, including children with hearing loss. Many families cannot afford to pay for the hearing aids their children need to function. The family of one eighteen month old is one of them. Eighteen month old Ashton Benberg has hearing loss and needs hearing aids.
The families audiologist temporarily loaned the young man a hearing aid. Family members said it instantly changed his world. “Instantly his face lit up.”
But the Benbergs say they cannot afford the $4,000 bill for hearing aid equipment. Until recent budget cuts, a $190,000 state funded program helped families like the Benbergs in need.
Department of Human Rights administrator Kathryn Reece said 3,000 children from grades K-12 are hard of hearing and need some type of hearing assistance like a hearing aid. The Child and Family Policy Center is pushing to have hearing aids covered by insurance.
Some 14 states have forced insurance companies to cover audiological services. Bills have been introduced in local legislatures to do the same, but many go unpassed. Until hearing aids are considered essential and can be covered by insurance companies nation wide, many children like Ashton and his parents may be forced to do without a life changing device.
Meantime, Ashton is learning sign language, but his mother said the cost of a hearing aid is minimal to what it will cost in the future if these children cannot acquire language skills.
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