Costco and overseas orders a response to hearing aid costs
Cooper is frequently told of “work-arounds” used by people who cannot afford the quoted price of hearing aids.
“On Friday somebody was telling me that they actually went to Costco … and got some hearing aids for $3000, and they had been somewhere else and got a quote for substantially more, in their view for the same sort of apparatus.”
Cooper said another woman had her hearing checked and sent the resulting audiology report to her son in Australia, who posted her back hearing aids that cost $580.
“Another gentleman actually got his hearing aids on some random website from America, and he said they amplify hearing for him, and that is, in his view, enough.
“I’m speaking to the experts here, and we know that is what we want people to do. We want them to have proper checks and access to ongoing care and ongoing support.
“But this is what older people are doing … at every single hui I speak about hearing loss and the concerns I have with risk factors for dementia mate wareware, and in the audience there are always people who look immediately at their husband or wife – and it’s usually the wife who turns around and says, ‘See, I told you so’.”
Cooper, whose watchdog and advocacy role is part of the Office of the Health and Disability Commissioner (HDC), said her own father had suffered from hearing loss. He hated wearing hearing aids, despite his hearing loss contributing to him giving up things he loved, including weekly beers and pool with mates.
“One Friday night he came home and said, ‘I’m not going back again’…it was for two reasons, we worked out in the end – firstly, he couldn’t hear his mates, and, secondly, we think cognitively [there was] some impact.”
Cooper noted that the United Kingdom’s National Health Service fully funds hearing aid loans (borrow, return for refurbishment), and new funding has been introduced in Australia.
‘Not everybody with hearing loss is going to develop dementia’
Other speakers included Professor Grant Searchfield, academic head of audiology at the University of Auckland.
He said hearing loss can cause cognitive decline, depression, anxiety, irritability, social isolation, fatigue from the effort required when listening, reduced physical activity and workplace productivity.
Lifestyle issues like smoking and a lack of physical activity were often mentioned as risk factors for dementia, Searchfield said, but hearing loss was a bigger one.
“But it’s also important to point out that not everybody with hearing loss is going to develop dementia, and we have to be very careful about the messaging that is employed, particularly in marketing around this.
“We should not assume that everybody that we see that is over 65 is going to have some form of cognitive decline, or that hearing aids are going to necessarily arrest cognitive decline in everybody.”
New Zealand’s city centres are becoming younger, he said, while the regions were ageing. This presented a workforce problem, particularly because younger audiologists more often wanted to live in cities.
The current funding model created an unmet need in areas such as tinnitus, sound intolerances and brain injuries, Searchfield said, including because treatment and fitting devices could take longer and be more difficult, and is, therefore, less appealing as a revenue stream.
“I do believe that the current funding model, which is focused on hearing as a commodity and the sale of hearing aids, is problematic,” Searchfield said.
“We need to, as a whole sector, work on how we can make this a commercial, profitable business scenario … but, on the other hand, make sure that those services that we currently aren’t providing, we can provide in a sustainable manner.
“This silver wave is fast approaching, so we need to take action now.”
What the Government is doing
Casey Costello, Associate Health Minister and Minister for Seniors, opened the conference by saying work was under way to overhaul funding for aged care, and an ongoing select committee inquiry would help steer that work.
The NZ First MP wanted bipartisan agreement on the way ahead, she said, and that would include a focus on prevention and keeping people healthy for longer, including by treating hearing loss.
Barney Irvine, chief executive of the Hearing Industry Association, said members were “challenged and vexed” by the huge numbers of New Zealanders not getting treatment for hearing loss, and today’s meeting was to lay a foundation for collaboration.
“This challenge is bigger than us … the age wave is not some far distant proposition … it is here now.”
Nicholas Jones is an investigative reporter at the Herald. He won the best individual investigation and best social issues reporter categories at the 2023 Voyager Media Awards.
