Families seek coverage for hearing aids

NORTHAMPTON, Mass. (WWLP) - Health insurance companies in Massachusetts do not have to cover hearing aids for children and that can be a burden for some parents. Now a new bill is trying to change that.

On average each hearing aid costs about 1,800 dollars each. The bill would require that insurance companies pay $1,600 of that cost.

Something that would help more children get hearing aids earlier in life.

Juilete Corwin from Northampton is deaf but she got hearing aids when she was an infant. Now she is on par with her fellow students in terms of development.

Her father, Bill Corwin, is the President of the Clarke School for the Deaf in Northampton. He said this bill needs to be passed because he sees too many cases where kids don't have access to the proper technology.

"You get kids who don't get aided for the first few years of their life and then they may come to us and they have effectively missed a couple of years of development as a result. They have that much more catching up to do," he said.

The bill would also make sure that hearing aid replacements can be covered because often times those need to be replaced every three to five years.