hardofhearingchildren.com by PAM Candlish MLS
"What did you say?" "Eh?" "WHAT did you say?" "MM?" "WHAT DID YOU SAY?" oh "PARDON ME!"

Where it is written that parents of handicapped children are rich?

$5000 for hearing aids every three years for the best auditory input Of course you do not have to buy the best for the child, but the best technology is the most expensive. The increase in the cost of hearing aids over the past 15 years has been almost exponential, but the improvements justify the development of the technology.

When Reid was a baby I wished for a FM assitive device for him. The only way we could get a FM was to buy one ourselves. When he was old enough to go to school the audiologist wrote a recommendation for a FM to the school board. Reid went to school with a huge ugly box on his chest, just like most of the deaf children of the past even though we had tiny over the ear hearing aids.

We all hated the box, and I swore I would mortgage the house when FM technology was reduced in size. In 1996 we used a microlink for the first time at the AG Bell conference in Utah. The audiologist wrote a recommendation for the Microlink, and the school board bought it for Reid. 

One of the parents who benefited from a cochlear device at the beginning of the technology sold her house to pay for the implant. There are several charitable sites for parents to go to if they need a cochlear implant and  cannot pay themselves. The same is true about hearing aids.

Canadian Federal Government Help

In Canada, a Canadian must be profoundly deaf or the parents of a profoundly deaf child to get help from the income tax department. This policy has always discriminated against oral and auditory verbal children, and will also have implications for children using CI's because the government evaluates the aided threshold. We have only received the Deafness disability deduction for one year when Reid was two.

 For the rest, the cost of hearing aids, batteries, FMs etc is a medical deduction which must be greater than a percentage of the income, and in claiming a medical deduction, you loose the working deduction. 

Ontario Provincial Help for Broke Parents of Severely Disabled Children

If your family pre-tax income is $34,000 or less, you may qualify for Handicapped Children's Benefit. It pays for the dentist, drugs,glasses and hearing aids,and an allowance which is painstakenly budgeted to take the child to the doctors etc.  OHCB will pay for tutors for the child, but the Ontario Teacher's Union will not allow these tutors at school. It also provides respite for the parents and siblings.

Quebec pays for Hearing Aids.

 25 October 2001

For a change, the government of the province of Quebec pays for hearing aids as long as they are ordered by a audiologist and/or ENT.
The threshold in the better ear must be over 25 dB, and the hearing aids are expected to last for 6 years!!! I have had several chats with representatives of hearing aid manufacturers who shudder when Quebec is mentioned, but here is proof that the government does pay for the hearing aids. Talking about this in Ontario gets absolute denial that it happens in Quebec.

http://www.ramq.gouv.qc.ca/fr/publications/documents/depliantscitoyens/dsc_fr_services.pdf

Insurance Companies are Reprehensible.

Do not buy insurance from a company which does not help with hearing aids and CI's. Tell your employer that the company insurance is discriminating against your child