Mothers push lawmakers for hearing-aid coverage
By WALTER C. JONESMorris News Service
ATLANTA – A handful of mothers with deaf children urged Georgia legislators Tuesday to require health insurance companies to provide hearing aids.
The women estimated there are fewer than 400 children needing the devices which can run as much as $6,000 for a pair every five years. Medicaid, the state’s insurance for the poor, already provides them, but most private insurance companies don’t because they aren’t necessary for survival like pacemakers.
“It’s going to be hard. It’s not a very popular concept,” admits Kelly Jenkins, one of the group’s co-founders and the mother of Sloane, age 3, who was fitted with hearing aids before she could walk.
Comer Yates, executive director of the Atlanta Speech School, said 90 percent of deaf children are born to hearing parents, so they are unlikely to learn sign language from their parents when other children are developing their vocabulary.
“Early exposure to language determines a child’s pathway in life,” he said.
Rep. Ed Lindsey, R-Atlanta, is the sponsor of House Bill 74 that would mandate hearing-aid coverage for children.
“Some folks in my community came to me and showed me there was a need for it,” he said.
“I’ve long been an advocate for the principle that my job is not to come down here and deliver edicts from the Gold Dome but to take the wisdom of my community to the table where decisions are made.”
