News Article on Passing a Bill for Hearing Aid Coverage

From the Southtown newspaper:

Put yourself in these shoes:You have a 3-year-old daughter with speech delays directly related to hearing loss.

The cost of her hearing aids? Upward of $2,500. Your health insurance plan doesn’t cover it.

Add hearing aids to the long list of products and services many insurance companies consider medically unnecessary. Hey, who needs ears, anyway?

A committee of the Illinois House recently agreed. The insurance committee led by state Rep. Frank Mautino (D-Spring Valley) by an 8-to-7 vote rejected House Bill 5600, which would have required insurance companies to cover the cost of hearing aids. Because federal law protects self-funded employer health insurance plans from such mandates, HB 5600 only would have impacted families in individual or small group plans – not a very wide net.

Still, the insurance committee voted the bill down, agreeing with the insurance industry that such mandates, collectively, create a slippery slope. They drive up the cost of health insurance.

Read the rest of the article here:

House Committee Puts Hearing to the Test