Silencing the Competition: Inside the Fight Against the Hearing Aid Cartel

@SpudGunner WELL said!

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[ADDENDUM: I apologize for the multiple edits and also for the one that, unintentionally, transplanted part of @greg.smith’s post into the middle of my text!]

I’m quoting myself in a new post, here, to try to draw back some readers I may have lost when Greg’s text showed up in the middle of mine. I apologize that it takes me so many edits to get a piece right, but I find that the Discourse text editor is very hard-to-read and finicky sometimes - nothing to do with my advancing years!

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@SpudGunner

SpudGunner I found your post really helpful.

I learned a lot from it.

Thank you
DaveL
Toronto

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@DaveL: Thank you, Dave. I try to be helpful.

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I am in the 20% that’s been referred to. Do I think aids are overpriced. Of course I do. Thank God I have insurance. At the same time that tiny little device opens a whole world to me that otherwise wouldn’t exist, at all. It’s because of that which makes the price a little easier to deal with. Even so every time I buy new aids I feel guilty thinking this money could be better spent elsewhere and I should just deal with my loss. I think everyone walks out of the building wearing new aids thinking they spent too much money

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No better place to spend bux. Without the aids, you would cut off people and experiences that just would not be possible. I think it is a quality of life issue. If the VA didn’t give mine, I would absolutely pay for them…happily…Nothing better than hearing the soft voices of the grand children…

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Nobody disputes the benefits received from wearing aids. What is being questioned is whether those that need them are being taken advantage of

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I really don’t know the answer to
that. Probably. It is one thing that I would like about Social Medicine…I believe folks have the absolute right to be able to hear!..WTG British commonwealth!

@danhuddleston: Don’t cheer the Commonwealth too loudly. We don’t have socialized hearing or vision care in Canada, not to mention dental!

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Whoops!..My bad! I thought all the commonwealth countries had good social medical. I stand corrected…Mea maxima culpa!
Dan

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:+1: :heart: (and the “post must be at least 30 characters…” :worried:)

I mean, I was taken for emergency surgery a few years back by ambulance, transferred between hospitals, seen by 4 paramedics, five doctors and countless nurses, kept in the hospital for 4 days, and I only had to pay $45 to supplement the first ambulence ride. So Canada is decent. But yeah, we have a ways to go on vision, hearing and dental.

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I agree @Neville. Was not meaning to denigrate Canada (after all, I wore the uniform). But we make people poor who don’t have insurance for vision, dental, and hearing.

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Our health plan in Canada has deteriorated. Indications are:

  • many new residents in Toronto can’t get a family physician. (think how bad it is to find a family doc if you live anywhere that’s remote!)
  • nurses work horrible hours! And then along comes C19
  • there aren’t enough nurses and they’re poorly treated
  • we don’t have enough hospitals in major centres/think what it’s like to live in an Atlantic or Northern Province

Drifted a pretty good way from this forums topic.

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At 83, I’m playing a “Penney’s binary game”. That is, since my HAs are over 6 yrs. old, I don’t know which is coming first, new, COSTLY aids, or the OTC, cheaper ones that fit my budget.

Being on a budget effects my choice.

Does anyone at all have any idea when the OTC aids will be available.
I don’t want to use ebay or Costco, but my question is: Should I keep waiting, and for how long?
(I could probably go for as long as a year without HAs, since I have moderate hearing loss and a very docile life style)

Any advice? (what I really want to do is go into CVS, pick up my medicine and shop for aids - somehow in shadows of my brain, that is a nice dream to have)

Your right ear is beyond a moderate hearing loss so I suspect you would not be happy with the OTC and the hearing would feel unbalanced. I don’t know what the return privileges will be with the OTC, you could always try once they are available but I think you would do better with traditional hearing aids.

You’ll find these suitable for your loss, basically are OTC by Bose, the Bose Sound Control Hearing Aids, a few members have used them with good results, at $850 they could be in your budget.

Use the search button from right here on hearingtracker, to help you find out more information.

https://forum.hearingtracker.com/search?q=Bose%20SoundControl%E2%84%A2%20Hearing%20Aids

Thank you for your service. My Father was career Navy. Lived in Halifax a lot, and my late Sister and my Brother were born there.

@DaveL: Thank you, Dave. It was my great pride and privilege to serve our country in uniform (many also serve in civilian capacities, too). I appreciate your recognition.

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