If someone were to say that you, and you alone, have the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to almost double hearing instrument market penetration in the next decade while completely changing the perception of hearing health care and hearing aids in the minds of consumers, you would probably be skeptical. But the hearing health care field is on the threshold of a momentous legislative event that has the potential to yield an unprecedented positive outcome. And, you can make a huge difference with only one fax and one phone call.

The Hearing Aid Assistance Tax Credit Act (HR 3103), sponsored by Congressman Jim Ryun (R-KS), has now garnered the support of a whopping 42 co-sponsors in the US House. On February 9, Senator Norm Coleman (R-MN) introduced a companion bill (SB 2055) in the Senate that mirrors the House bill. Both bills provide for a $500 tax credit ($1,000 for a binaural fitting) per hearing-impaired citizen age 55 and above, as well as dependents ages 18 and younger. The tax credit would be available to any qualified citizen once every 5 years. (For more information on the bill, see the December 2003 HR News, p 12.)

The House bill is co-sponsored almost evenly by both Republicans and Democrats, with representatives supporting the bill as diverse as arch-conservative Henry Hyde and arch-liberal Barney Frank—the only other time these two guys agreed on something was when one didn’t understand the question. In other words, this is one of those few bills that legislators can rally around, because it’s simply the right thing to do.

Passage of the Hearing Aid Assistance Tax Credit Act is a cause that every hearing health care provider and organization can support, and if passed, the bill would radically change the way the general public looks at hearing health care. Our government has traditionally used the nation’s tax code to reward good, healthy behavior and punish bad, unhealthy behavior. Passage of a bill that endorses hearing instruments and hearing care services is something of a governmental “stamp of approval” that acknowledges the importance of hearing health care in society and on an individual’s quality of life and pursuit of happiness. Further, HR 3103 and SB 2055 address exactly what consumers and hearing care professionals need: a mechanism to help those consumers who are less fortunate or on a fixed income get real treatment for their hearing health care problems. Almost 30% of those people who don’t purchase a hearing aid cite cost as a primary factor, and there are about 21-million people in the US who have a significant hearing problem and do not have hearing aids.

If you’re like me, you probably don’t do a lot of writing to your Congressional representatives. But this is a no-brainer, folks. We all need to pull together and each send a fax to our representatives in the House and Senate, then if possible, follow up with a phone call. Sample letters for supporting this bill are available at the Starkey Web site (go to www.starkey.com and click on the bottom of the page where it talks about this legislation), and HR will be publishing a sample letter in an upcoming issue. To find the fax numbers, phone numbers, and email addresses of your state’s senators and representatives, visit www.congress.gov (simply type in your zip code, and it gives you the relevant information). If at all possible, send a fax; senatorial offices receive, on average, 50,000 emails each month and representatives’ offices receive about 8,000 emails each month. Faxes get more attention. A phone call makes your effort at least twice as effective—and, yes, you really can make a difference!

We all know that hearing loss in the United States is a terribly under-treated problem. At last, we have a bill in Congress that can potentially help millions of people gain access to quality health care. It’s time to make the call!

Karl Strom
Editor-In-Chief