News from the hearing impaired
I’ve been noticing as I watch TV that I will usually go through the steps to get subtitles. My wife occasionally tells me the TV is too loud. I was wondering, is my hearing degrading?
I have some experience in this area, my Dad, who complained for years that he was losing his hearing before anyone actually believed him. That was the basis for the old joke that married men only suffer partial hearing loss, the one frequency that their wives are on. But Dad finally did get hearing aids. He was constantly having to replace the batteries, and also adjusting the level. I don’t think they worked very well. However, one of my older brothers kicked in $2,500, directly to an audiologist, and then when Dad came to get his hearing aid replaced, the bill was only $1,000 instead of $3,500. Dad was suspicious about that.
But stop and think – this was maybe twenty years ago, $3,500 for hearing aids! At or around that time I read an opinion to the effect that hearing aids should be like reading glasses, things we can purchase over the counter. It was a racket, the writer said, and I am attune to that sort of thinking anyway. I know that dentists here in Colorado all charge the same price for the same procedure, no exceptions. I know that optometrists must have some sort of agreement not to compete, as I was approached by one in 1996 when I ran for office. He wanted protection from competition, and I gave him the short shrift. But I got a nice lunch out of it. These schemes are often approved by state legislatures, and it is done, of course, to protect us consumers from being exposed to dentists and optometrists who might charge less for a procedure. Zounds!
Anyway, I went to see an audiologist yesterday, and was completely unaware that maybe three years ago one of the Federal agencies that run our lives had deregulated hearing aids. We can indeed buy them OTC, or over the counter. But I did not know that during the appointment, and I was informed that I had indeed experienced hearing loss. I made an appointment in January for further testing, and probably to be fitted for hearing aids.
When I got home, as I am having a running conversation with AI, I asked my computer if hearing aids were a “racket”?, ha ha, play on words. Here’s what I got:
“The perception of hearing aids as a “racket” stems from concerns about high prices, limited competition, and perceived lack of innovation, but the situation is nuanced. While some users and commentators describe the industry as a “racket” due to high costs—often exceeding $5,000 for a pair—and the dominance of a few major manufacturers like Sonova and Demant, others argue that the high price reflects the cost of specialized services, programming, and ongoing support. Critics point to the industry’s slow pace of technological advancement compared to other electronics, suggesting manufacturers maintain large profit margins without significant innovation. There are also allegations of anti-competitive practices, including a perceived cartel that restricts market entry and keeps prices high, with political interference cited as a contributing factor.”
I discovered that I did not have to use an audiologist to remedy my hearing loss, and that I could buy a set of hearing aids at Amazon for like $300. That change came down in 2022, I now read. That’s interesting, because I told the audiologist about our trick on our Dad to get him a set for $1,000, and said that even so, I felt that $3,500 was “profiteering”, a nicer word than “ripoff” or “scam”. She said “Time is up. I have another patient.” Seriously. She dismissed me. I did not know I had trampled on hallowed ground.
Anyway, credit the age we are in, I ordered a pair yesterday ago, and got them last night, read the literature and put them in this morning. I encountered our neighbor this morning, and ask if he had hearing aids. Yes. “What do you think of them?” “Life changing” was his answer.
We’ll see. I have them in now. They operate off my mobile phone so that when a call comes in I can answer and hear the caller in my head. I can listen to music and podcasts without headphones or earbuds. I’m just like these kids walking around carrying on conversations with their phone in front of their faces.
With the devices in, I can add noise to counter the tinnitus I experience. So far, it’s all good. As I said to my wife, “Not only can I hear you, but you’re making sense!”
No! I did not say that!!!. That is my inappropriate sense of humor. She’s a lovely and smart woman, and I love her company. If I were to say something that stupid to her, I would surely get the silent treatment.
But how would I know it?
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Speaking of rackets …
We live in what is called the “urban interface” up here in the foothills above Denver, where forest meets civilization. Last year our homeowners insurance went up 89%. Recently I asked our carrier to move our annual payment to a different month, as we were getting bombed with expenses in April. To do that, they are now going through “underwriting”. That may sound innocent, but many people up here have lost their insurance, and others have been unable to purchase a home up here due to the inability to get insurance. Rates have skyrocketed.
I called around yesterday, and finally spoke to a Safeco agent. She said, basically, that our area is redlined, my word. Most insurers have left, and the two that are left, State Farm and USA, are limiting issuance of new policies. There’s a good chance we’ll be dropped. It’s because of wildfire risk, I am told.
I explained to her that we are in no more danger of wildfires here than we were in the 1950s, not that they aren’t a real peril. She said there was a document circulating among insurers saying that our area, Evergreen/Conifer Colorado, is rated the most wildfire-endangered in the whole of the USA.
That’s nonsense, of course. But what I suspect is that insurers, all using the same playbook, are backing out of riskier areas not because of real increased wildfire danger, but rather because the climate change fanatics have gotten their attention. I asked the Safeco gal if the document she referenced about our extreme danger mentioned climate change. Yes, she said.
So, what’s going on here? Advertising, I think, or public relations. Our area is not the most dangerous in the country by any means, but I would bet that all around the country, anywhere people live in the urban interface, they are being told the same tale by insurance companies, that THEIR area is the most in danger. It’s all a game, and if it is only about profiteering (surely part of it), well, we will have to move or pony up. (Can we move? What if a new owner cannot get insurance? That would kill the deal. What if we get dropped? Should we go bare?)
But what if there is more? If there is no scientific reason for us being at increased risk for wildfires (we are not), what other risk is there? None, that I can think of, other than more structures that might burn. But rates should accommodate that without wildfire-like rate increases. My suspicious self wonders if they want everyone living in smart cities in the future. Country life for regular people is on the way out. Only the Obama’s and Al Gore’s of this world will be able to live the kind of life we live here, though they chose beaches in peril of flooding caused by warming as their safe nests.
We had a “wild” fire a few miles from here last year, the Quarry Fire. We were put on “pre-evacuation” notice, but it never came to pass. At the time the fire started, a local sheriff deputy was driving down a country road, and noticed sparks up on a hillside. There were also lights, like flashlights working or perhaps a car with headlights on. Someone was setting the fire deliberately, arson. I am fortunate to know Steve Kelly, who used to write here, and who once told me that the the Forest Service hires people to start fires. It’s a jobs program, he said, and also a bureaucratic agency preservation tactic.
If that were the case, even as the local man in charge of fighting the fire said on the news that the fire was arson and that they had suspect and would be following up after the danger had passed, the subject died a quiet death. There was no arrest, and no further news on the matter.
I predicted as much on our local NextDoor, and was roundly criticized for doubting local law enforcement. I don’t truck in NextDoor any more, on the Groucho Marx theory that I should not belong to a group that would have me as a member.
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Northern Lights exposed?
The Amazon delivery man who brought me my hearing aids last night said we were getting the Northern Lights up here, and showed me an amazing photo, better by far than this one. We went out to our back deck, and the sky was pinkish. However, the above iPhone photo I took enhances things, in effect, adding intense color to a slight pinkish sky. To my naked eye, I saw a pink haze, and that by itself is exciting, but it was nothing like this photo.
That made me wonder if all of the Northern Lights photos we see are photo enhanced? Like the one below?
Piece of Mindful 
Typing on my phone… unusual for me,be prepared for mixed bag grammar n such.
Hearing Aids: Fuck Yes, it’s a racket… but my ears are shit, I have really no choice. Above all, further angering ignorant me, the damage was my fault!
Five YEARS fucking around with ENT dox, OTC Aids (twice- below my needs). Ultimately, fucking ULTIMATELY, instead of THREE independent PhD (“audiologists” – where i knew more about their software than they did) telling me about my music couldn’t be “loud” enough to cause such damage (“unless concert level and CLOSE”)… I tested the ACTUAL volume of my favorite ROCK MUSIC while torturing my body working out.
Ready? 93dB… yeah, that dropped some jaws when I said “just” an hour per day. Peak level of course. The only service provider (also a PhD) that actually listened to me telling my tales of woe. “Dave, 15 minutes at that level and you’re causing [permanent] damage.” Sweet, says ignorant me.
“Dave, WHY would you do that?.”
“First, I genuinely didn’t think it was too loud. Second, I want to feel the bass move my ribs and third, I thought this beautiful human machine could easily repair such things… music, pffft, no problemo.”
“Ah, wrong. But, still, even after you knew you had damage, you continued… WHY?”
She is a skilled professional who knew her trade and devices well… I knew that I’d stick with her.
“TOO ESCAPE THIS FUCKED UP WORLD… bury myself in sounds of love, and joy, and hate, and beauty, and raw emotion pouring from musicians as damaged as I am.”
She paused, and I liked her even more. “I see.” And I belive that she did.
Yeah, I love loud music… I’ve written some things about here on PoM.
Anyway, SIX THOUSAND dollars for any of three identical top manufacturers, and I still can’t hear all of what Wifey is saying to me. Yeah, hah, my main frequency range of loss is that of typical adult female voice.
Movie dialog, forget about it- subtitles still.
Overall though, my “hearing” is better, but I am not looking forward to paying for the planned obsolescence for the rest of my life. Additionally, as an athlete… they are such a pain in the ass: no shower, no rain, no fucking SWEAT; useless in wind. WTF?! $6,000… come on.
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You two are great, very entertaining. My old man at 83 finally got hearing aids, there is really no stigma anymore in wearing them.
What’s crazy is you can buy great noise-canceling earbuds from Bose (my family worked there for years, so I get a hefty discount on their products – they can be overpriced) for under $200 retail, that sound great (music wise), and cancel noises almost as well as the noise canceling headphones I have. Why they can’t make hearing aids the same price is a mystery. Also the batteries last forever in them.
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The loudest noise I’ve ever experienced was attending a Denver Broncos game. When they broadcast a game they make the fan noise seem like background, but it is loud and intense … I had to cover my ears, I thought my drums would burst.
Anyway, I feel your pain, youthful exuberance and testosterone and all of that.
I have not tried this out but will, and may get some comedy out of it, Lost in Translation, but they make apps to put on the phone to work with the hearing aids that will translate the words of the person standing in front of you, say that person is speaking French. Can you imagine the goofups?
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If an NFL game is too loud for you try a concert in Thailand. Holy cow modern concerts can be ridiculously loud. In my wifes home district they have New Years free concerts (looking forward to heading there soon), and even with ear plugs I can only take about 10 minutes of punishment before I tap out. When you can physically feel the sound pushing you backwards, it’s probably damaging your hearing.
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If it’s too loud then you’re too old! Remember that ole saying…
doesn’t take much to lose hearing, not just prolonged rock concerts, a few loud clanks and dings will do it too. Eddie Van Halen stated in an decade old interview he didn’t have any hearing loss, hard to believe that. Some rockers, paul stanley(kiss), brian johnson(ac/dc), charlie benante(anthrax) are coming out about their hearing loss and even promoting hearing aids. They got paid to make it cool to lose it and now getting paid and making it cool to try and get it back.
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I like translators that show your words while you speak when you are trying to talk to someone in a foreign language. Because they often garble what you said (especially if you mumble as i am wont to do) and then the translation can be completely wrong or offensive.
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Nonetheless, I want to give it a go. I find that most of the world in what I call the “tourist interface” speaks English remarkably well. It s taught in most European schools, along with other languages. How considerate of them, so that people like me so poorly educated can get by.
We were in Nepal quite a while back, and sat with a father and son from Norway. In Dad’s schooling he had been taught King’s English, the son was more Americanized. It was remarkable to hear them speak, a Brit and an American side by side.
Outside the tourist interface, in smaller towns and countryside, English speaking is more unusual. We (I) tend to dislike big cities, so maybe it will be useful? I think we’re going to France next year. It is in the air.
Maybe if we lose our insurance and have to move, we go to France? Nah. They don’t want us. But the world is wide open to us. I’d even consider a foreign land like … North Carolina?
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Just returned from my first international trip EVER! (No, Canada doesn’t count for Americans).
Norway… ancestry search with #1 Son.
Even the rural Nordland farmers spoke better English than those undefined creatures of O’Hare International TSA. I can’t imagine how visitors to this country (U.S.) feel when arriving at ORD and they are yelled at, scolded, and basically treated like cattle by sub-humans with maybe 7th grade education. No translating software that I am aware of could handle that linguistic brilliance.
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The worst are the Customs and Border Protection officers. I remember walking past them in O’Hare boarding my plane to Korea a few years ago. They look like a bunch of thug shakedown artists, which is what they are. These fat clowns were wearing bulletproof vests and carrying heavy sidearms in the MIDDLE OF A GODDAMN AIRPORT, far, far past security. Basically a bunch of pussies trying to scare and shakedown Asians boarding the flight with US cash to bring home. Because they will confiscate ALL YOUR MONEY if you are carrying more than $10,000, not just the amount exceeding $10,000. Also – those X-ray screeners in airports – they ain’t there for security. There to keep people from smuggling precious metals out of the country without “declaring” it on some government tax form. Gold, silver, or platinum light up like a Christmas tree with X ray scanners.
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You’re welcome to come to Thailand – extremely welcoming to retirees, and still cheap but their English frankly sucks because their education system is terrible, designed to make them obedient and loyal. Which I really don’t care about since as I get older I enjoy listening more, and talking less. I just listen to people speaking Thai and it’s like birds chirping in the trees. And gives me an excuse to learn the language, which I plan to do when I have more time post retirement.
However it is being loved to death, so to speak, right now by foreigners. Which there are a lot there now. Which makes for interesting conversations on a night out – you meet people from everywhere, especially Europeans, men of course more plentiful than women. The Russians are flooding the place, and tend to not mix with locals or the Euros and Americans. So there are many ex-pats to talk to and make friends with.
The other popular place in SE Asia retirees from America are flooding to is Phillipines. However Phillipino food is boring, and their culture is heavily infected by European and American colonization.
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And speaking of NakedCapitalism (below), Thailand is where Yves Smith (aka Susan Webber) who created that site has moved to. So yes, seems to be booming with expats.
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Another major reason, if not the major reason for hearing loss – that many don’t consider – especially among men is power tools. Something people don’t consider, but drills, saws, and other things commonly used in carpentry, and of course lawn mowers, tractors, are extremely damaging to hearing. This is anecdotal, but I used to have bad tinnitus when I did a lot more carpentry, which is no longer an issue, and also I still have excellent hearing at 55. The reason men lose hearing at a higher rate is clearly due to this factor, especially if you factor in all the men who work construction jobs (think jackhammers!).
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Great insight. Keep it coming.
We missed a flight coming home from abroad because we reentered the U.S. through Salt Lake City. We were on a tight schedule to catch our flight. We got our checked bag, took it to the part of the process run by Dept of State, there they rechecked the bag, scanned our faces and ID’d us, and we were on our way, we thought.
Then came TSA, and one person who took passports,eyeballed them and the people standing in line, stamped them and said “Next.” 200 of us! It had already been done electronically! That part was an agonizing wait.
Then they did a bag scan again, for people who had never left the security area. It was slow motion! Finally in frustration I blurted out while waiting for mine to come through “Do any of you know how to hurry?” People around me laughed. an officious looking guy not involved in the fondling of belongings said “What did you say about us?” I said something like “We are going to miss our flight.”
Nothing changed, and, of course, our gate was at the end of a one-half mile corridor, and we missed our flight. Not even close to making it. We had to spend another three hours in SLC, and we vowed never again to come home that way. Minneapolis is much more efficient.
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Reminds me, early on, waiting in a long TSA queue in Anchorage to board a flight, a guy was walking the line asking people “Are you going to Dallas?” He wanted to give us something to take with us, and I realized, still a newbie to 911, that if anyone really wanted to blow us up, they would not do it in the airport, but rather in the waiting queue!
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Just like the Boston Marathon “bombers”. When that happened, and I was still naive to believe it was real, I couldn’t figure out why if they could make these bombs why they didn’t put them in a packed subway car – of which there are many in Boston every day, and kill far more people than a backpack sitting outside on a not crowded street, as it was during the marathon. Of course it was all about the show, where the cameras could record the march of the walking dead, and clowns like Carlos Arredondo. I actually remember seeing the guy drive around Boston before that happened, as I lived in the same neighborhood as him. He used to drive around in a car trailing a coffin with his supposed dead son, it was a real spectacle. I just looked him up and this guy has a real rich, juicy history – he was already well known before the Marathon Bombing!:
“In August 2011, a federal post office at 655 Centre St in Jamaica Plain, Boston, a neighborhood where his son grew up, was renamed “Lance Corporal Alexander Scott Arredondo, United States Marine Corps Post Office Building” following legislation proposed by US Representative Michael E. Capuano and co-sponsored by nine other legislators, and later signed by the President in January 2011.”
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Had bad tinnitus? How did you cure it, please?
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If you’re asking me, I don’t think there is a cure. The hearing aid I bought only offers various kinds of background noise to relieve it. Ray might know more than me.
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My first guess about the professional grade hearing aids and their shutting out OTC competitors would have been “probably a racket”… But I was first introduced to the topic awhile back via the NoAgenda show, when they covered the issue. Adam Curry, a self styled audiophile, made a passionate case for the importance of properly tuned hearing aids, of high quality, and the disservice that would be done to the public when the line between high end and mid range becomes blurred, after the new law. I had to admit there could be more to the issue than I recognized.
OTOH, my dad who’s a little older than you has been reading up on all this and almost ordered some from Amazon. The reviews were great etc. But then it turned out he qualified for free ones through the VA from a year in the Navy decades ago. So he went that way. And they’re a huge improvement apparently, but there are issues. Eg, they completely seal off the ear like ear plugs, so he’s taken to wearing only one because he doesn’t like the full “vacuum sealed” effect.
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NakedCapitalism has been on the climate change/ home insurance beat for quite a while. They regularly update the state of play. Of course they take climate change as real and man-made, but they are expert in economics and give a lot of insight along those lines. Also the comments provide a lot of insight as people talk about their experiences all over the country. I guess a search on “home insurance” in their search box would turn up some of them if you’re interested.
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I didn’t really give my reasons for the dissatisfaction with OTC.
My hearing is bad… most, MOST OTC Aids are for moderate (or less) loss. Both independent models I tried (for months) allowed custom programming – effectively frequency range boosting, but other algorithmic shite. NEITHER had fine enough range control; NEITHER offered any real Noise Cancellation; worst of all: NEITHER could hold a charge for more than 4 hours.
Yeah $650… but USELESS to me.
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There was an oft-repeated response when Gore ran for President that we had to accept good rather than perfect, and be content with it. Gore, of course, was far from good, so far towards imperfect that he tipped the scale and only had credibility in that we were given Bush as the alternative, the worst choice in my living days, and that’s a long time.
With hearing aids, millions of people went without them because they were unaffordable, thousands of dollars for inferior products. Those that could afford them enjoyed some reprieve, but not enough.
The OTC brands are not perfect, but for me, suffering mild hearing loss (called “severe” by the gal who was going to fleece me), the good is good enough.
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A guy goes to the doctor
“Doctor, I’m positive my wife is losing her hearing, I’m afraid the problem is quite bad already, is there anything you can do to help her?”
“Well, I could try but first of all I need to visit your wife and have her hearing properly checked”
“Yes I understand that, but the problem is my wife is very shy and I know she would never agree to come here and get checked. It would be great if you could think of a way to skip that part”
“Oh, I see, that’s unfortunate, well, it’s a bit unorthodox, but we can try this, when you get home just stop by the door and say something to your wife in a normal voice tone, if you get no response take some steps forward and try again until you get a response, there take note of the distance and report back to me”
“Brilliant! Surely I can do that, thank you very much doctor”
The guy gets home stops by the door and says “Honey, it’s me, what do we have for dinner?”
No reply
The guy steps a little forward and repeats “Honey, it’s me, what do we have for dinner?”
No reply
The guy keeps stepping forward until finally he is just outside the kitchen.
“Honey, it’s me, what do we have for dinner?”
“For Christ sake Joe, roast turkey with potatoes, it’s the fifth time I tell you!!”
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Nice joke thanks for posting
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Wow, thanks for the info, this is great, I knew nothing about it.
Hearing aids def can be life changing. Years ago I was dating a guy who was pretty deaf, but was so adept at reading lips and winging it that I didn’t know it at first. One night we were out with a group of his friends, and they were attacking me about something, I don’t recall what, and one guy made a cutting remark and they all started laughing, at me, not with me–and my bf joined in. It almost ended our brief relationship. But later he explained that he had no idea what was being said, because he could hear virtually nothing in a noisy bar. He also had severe constant tinnitus. Soon after he got hearing aids, which cost thousands, a couple of decades ago. They worked great, for the most part, and stopped the tinnitus, while they were in. He said it was the first time he hadn’t heard crickets in a decade. And we went on to have a 10-year relationship–would not have happened without hearing aids, guaranteed. Unless maybe we both learned sign language.
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BTW he would have to go in to have the hearing aids adjusted sometimes–as I recall they had a way to selectively amplify and suppress various frequencies, but I wasn’t really paying attention at the time. It does not sound like the OTC hearing aids necessarily have the ability to make any adjustment like that, could make a big difference.
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You’re probably right about the OTCs, which are probably just a step above AirPods. I have mine in right now and they do nothing for the tinnitus, which is not terribly bad anyway.
I’m trying to come up with a unique and clever parallel, but I’m not that clever. I’ve lost hearing in the higher ranges, so would not hear, say, a high-pitched squeak. But I can and do hear voices and normal range stuff, and even enjoy classical music with headphones on, and I don’t think I’m missing that much.
To correct my problem with a set of hearing aids costing $3-$6,000, get ready for it because this is really clever, is like shooting a fly with a cannon.
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