Hey! Oticon, WS Audiology, and ReSound are headquartered in Denmark. Sonova (Phonak) in Switzerland, Starkey in the U.S. So, to be fair, let’s say “something is rotten in Denmark, Switzerland, and the U.S.A.!”
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It’s just an expression and a coincidence. But unfortunately, true.
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Obviously! I hope you can tell I’m joking. I should have put a smiley face in my previous post! 
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When the USA was mentioned I was afraid this was going to veer WAY off into politics….
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No problems Jim. I got it. But it wouldn’t be the first time someone on this forum misunderstood something was made in jest. I’ve been guilty of that myself.
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If you mean me, I am Bruce. 
Really? HA technology has gotten vastly better and more sophisticated over the last 20 years, and even over the last decade. Bluetooth, streaming, hands free phones, better sound quality. To me what’s remarkable is how many different functions and capacities HAs can perform. Rotten? Wanna go back 20 years? All of the new developments require engineers, research, development, and all the rest. It was easy for me to get interest free financing for a year in order to pay for my expensive aids. I’m on a limited budget so that helped. True, the aids cost nearly as much as my used Honda Fit. Still, the providers that I see aren’t getting rich in their very active practice.
There’s a tendency to presume that there are unseen billionaires in the background of corporations, forcing up prices strictly to finance their own lifestyle. Yeah, there’s some of this going on. We often don’t see the background expenses like rent and manufacturing costs and insurance and payroll that go into running a business. If we don’t factor any of that in, HA prices seem outrageous. But those costs are real.
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Dr. Cliff posted a good vlog today on YouTube explaining his Audigy relationship. He made a good point. The new partnership isn’t about making money. It’s about improving the way the audiologist community delivers patient care. He then goes on to say he could make way more money investing the 10 hours a week he spends on this project doing something else.
Dr. Cliff is certainly very passionate about this industry and has done so much to spread awareness.
We need more Dr. Cliffs…
Jordan
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My extreme apologies @Jeffrey I am about to rant… Of course its rotten, and rotten to the core… And anyone saying otherwise is perhaps deluding themselves, the whole hearing aid system stinks, they could easily sell top tier aids for $200 a pair, and still make a decent profit… The problem is too many fingers in the pie, bleeding the end user dry, all this crap about different tiers of aids is pure B/S, they are the ones whom are purposefully downgrading the aids to eek out a more substantial profit, by forcing users into buying better features, by buying a better tier of aid, because that’s what we are all after, better hearing…In each category of hearing aids, tier 1 or tier 4, its the same aid, we have the same chip, same software, same O/S, same battery, the manufacturers disable the features in the lower tier aids… FFS, if that’s not manipulation I don’t know what is, and its manipulation against disabled folks… Apologies again, rant over. By way of example, my wife is a retired Social Worker for the Deaf, she has a very mild hearing loss caused by Chemotherapy perhaps? But, she likes listening to Podcasts while she does her artwork, anyway she wanted a set of EarPods, but didn’t want the expensive apple version, so I thought I would pay £100 or so from Amazon, I got a set for £25,with absolutely excellent reviews, 40+ hours runtime allegedly, noise cancelling, Bluetooth 5.3, pickup mic for cell phone calls, the case can be charged up, as a backup charger on the go, she states the clarity is pristine, she asked for another set as back ups, the same ones, the price had dropped to £19.99, and for the price, unbelievable value! Now, I am acutely aware these ain’t hearing aids, but the components will not be too dissimilar, Amazon has made a profit, I assume the manufacturers make one, by bulk selling, so by my reckoning £50 tops per aid manufacturing costs, and that’s probably fairly conservative? As always YMMV… Cheers Kev
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No disrespect but the components in an iPhone are only worth $300. The reason an iPhone costs $1500 is that the research and development that is required to bring a new iPhone to market costs Apple Billions$. Those cheap Chinese air buds only cost $25 because they reverse engineer and steal someone else’s intellectual property and then sell them for nothing. Same holds true for hearing aids.
The difference with hearing aids is that the development costs are extremely high and the volumes of product sold are extremely low. Hence the high cost.
Just my two cents…
Jordan
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Yeah, I agree somewhat with what you are saying Jordon, everything I usually buy, communication wise, is Apple… I like quality, and it usually lasts… $300 production costs seems reasonable, and a 200% markup for sales profit, and R&D seems very reasonable of Apple… But, $6k or $7K, for a $100 set of aids seems way OTT to me… I reiterate, too many fingers in the actual Pie…Cheers Kev
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No need to apologize Kevels55! I’m not privy to the whole manufacturing and selling big picture, with banks and investors who make it possible, and all the rest. I’ll just say that you failed to mention anything about my several points. These advanced aids didn’t fall out of the sky; the cost of component parts isn’t the whole picture. fAr from it. Jordan K makes excellent points.
Unless you think the Rand D folks,. the shippers, the cost of building manufacturing facilities, import fees, payroll, managers, stockholders etc etc all should happen for free.
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LOL I’ve made statements equally ridiculous and unsupported. But that was a few decades ago and/or when I was drunk.
On the other hand…Chevron jsut posted record profits while the whole world was paying outrageous prices for gas for heating and cars. That’s the beginning of MY rant! And big pharma…oy. It is dispiriting.
Here’s the Beatles:
everywhere there’s lots of piggies
living piggy lives
you can see them out for dinner
with their piggy wives
clutching forks and knives
to eat their bacon
there’s doubtless some of that going on in the HA industry.
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That is only with services bundled in with the cost of the aids. Before the recent price increase, the unbundled cost of my More 1 was $2820. I also paid $1045 for fitting and the first 60 days of services.
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No argument @Jeffrey, I agree with most of what you are saying, I believe the whole system stinks, the $100 pair of aids in someones ears, can mushroom into 50 or 60 times its actual manufacturers cost… Somebody’s making money ??? Cheers Kev
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That’s a reasonable price for the states Bruce, I hope everything works out successfully with your Reals… Cheers Kev 
Than I think I need to pay about $230 due to the price increase.
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Just learned something. I’d found it puzzling that Dr. Cliff was partnering with Audigy when I was pretty sure Audigy hearing aids were locked. I found a post from Dr Cliff specifically recommending against Audigy hearing aids because of this, BUT apparently they also sell branded hearing aids that are not locked and he recommends you buy them if you go to Audigy. My audiologist recommended AGX hearing aids, but when I look at all the information on the internet they are barely referenced. Consumer Reports doesn't include them. How do they rate?
That article claims that in request they will provide unlock code to another audiologist. Unless the user can get a code for DIY, they are still locked.