Late October, Senator Sherrod Brown (OH) introduced a bill to require Medicare to cover hearing aids. Highlights from the article:
Brown will try to get this included in the health care legislation
* Other countries already provide hearing aids to people in similar government plans
* AARP Director of Federal Relations says many senior citizens already have Medicare Advantage plans that cover hearing aids, which is not entirely true, because it only covers a portion of the cost)
* A cosponsor of the House version does not think Brown will succeed in having the provision included in the health care bill because of the possibility of Medicare cuts.
The Senate version of the bill is S 1837 (introduced in October 2009), and it has no cosponsors. The House version of the bill is HR 504 (introduced in January 2009), and it has only five cosponsors. Unless there is a big push by people who would benefit from these bills, they don’t stand much chance of passage due to lack of co-sponsorship.