Hearing aids - why do they cost like a car ?

07 Jan 2010

amitm123

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Hearing aids for hearing impaired people are like glasses for others with bad eye sight. In both cases the prices are extremely high. In the past the hearing aids manufacturer used to claim that its the cost of the Research and development that make it so high, today they cannot claim so any more. A hearing impaired person needs hearing aid to increase the sound he/she can still hear and to enable him/her to improve his life, communicate, work, study and generally live better. 10% of the population in North American and 16% of the population in Europe are hearing impaired this is a huge number. However only 10% of them are using hearing aids, despite the fact that they need it desperately. Why ? Because a pair of hearing aids cost like a car. the cheapest may reach 2400 Euro for a pair and the most expensive to 5000 euro. But this isn't ending here, there is an insurance to pay for. and once in 6 months it have to be repaired. and every 4-5 years a new one is needed. Some of those hearing impaired have no choice but to buy the most expensive because it suit their level of hearing. Is there a real reason that a hearing aid will be so expensive ? No there is none. The technology isn't new anymore and the investment on research and development is minimal today, after all minimalization of the technology isn't needed look what we can put on a little telephone. Actually thinking of it how come the most sophisticated telephone which is actually a little computer cost 10% from a device that all its purpose is to increase sounds ? The hearing aids manufacturer actually decided to hit just 10% of their target market. The interesting thing is that companies from all over the western world manufacture hearing aids and sell them in more or less the same prices and this smells a bit like a cartel. No wonder hearing impaired people that sooner or later will become deaf prefer to stay inside their own community. Without the hearing aids they can hardly function in the hearing community. Unfortunately government not bothering to regulate this market (liberalism ?) just like they prefer not to interfere with the business of the medicine markets. Our only hope is that the Chinese manufacturers that started accessing this market will create a real competition that will reduce the prices. If the western world prefer to give up on such a huge part of its population (which is usually also very talented and able to do amazing things) then we are in big problem because the amount of hearing impaired people in the world is just growing.

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