Jessica Bianco’s Story

This morning as I listened to my clock ticking my son was sleeping next to me. Because he was not wearing his hearing aids, he was completely unaware of the ticking. The clock screamed at me, “WRITE THE STORY, WRITE THE STORY, WRITE THE STORY”. My story is overdue. I promised I would submit it months ago. But how? How do I write something to convince Congress to vote for legislation that only affects 1 out of 10 American children born? See, no matter how hard I try, I cannot make Congress realize that most of us are born being able to hear everything around us. A simple change in legislation related to health insurance would allow children born with hearing loss and aging adults obtain the proper hearing aids for their hearing loss.

 

 

Maybe instead of writing a story, I should come up with a catchy slogan like MasterCard. You know:

Cochlear Implants-Free (really they are $97, 000 but insurance covers the hospital bill).

Hearing Aids-$5,000.00 (but insurance doesn’t pay the bill).

Being able to hear life-Priceless.

 

 

Honestly, my thought is to come to Washington, DC when Congress is in session and pass out ear plugs and have legislators conduct business as “normal” and see how effective they are. My son’s school did this one time for parents. After we took a test with ear plugs in, which most of us failed, the teachers stated that using ear plugs represents a person with MILD hearing loss. I cried.

 

 

My family is lucky. We can afford hearing aids for our son. But, there are many Americans who are not as lucky as we are. Please write your congress person and convince them to vote in favor of hearing aid legislation. Convince them to sit still and listen to the sounds around them, and then think of my son and millions of other Americans who cannot hear anything.  Convince them to help those Americans hear life. 

 

 

Jessica Bianco