It’s almost astonishing that my credit card has not warped and melted from all the use it has gotten over the past week. The “tap” feature on it suddenly stopped working during the last number of transactions, which may or may not be coincidental. I’m surprised the bank hasn’t frozen it yet, pending investigation for suspicious use. In five days I have racked up ten-thousand dollars ($10,000) of unavoidable, necessary purchases.

At some point in the future that might not sound like a lot of money, but right now on this day in time, at least for me, that is a whopping big sum, especially to be put down so quickly and unexpectedly. I realize this happens to people, and for much, much more…..the sudden breakdown of a heating or septic system, the need to replace a leaking roof – if you happen to own your own home, the ongoing maintenance can throw you into a financial hole. The consolation is that at least you are left with something tangible and lasting that becomes an investment into your own property. These five day expenditures popped up one day after another. Somehow it felt different than the surreal experience of sitting down and signing your name to a giant, scary mortgage for hundreds of thousands of dollars, or even taking out a new car loan. I’m not sure why, but even though this amount is significantly less than a house or a car, perhaps it is because those are things which will last for a long while, are investments, something that can be resold in the future, and that when you enter into that kind of an arrangement, you are at least making an exciting choice, the purchase is anticipated and not a surprise.

This will lead into the topic of inflation. For perspective on inflation, when I was a teenager buying my first car (and really, I’m not that old), a brand new compact car cost about $1919. Even paying that in installments, it was doable, and realistic that someone – even a teenager – could actually buy a new vehicle without getting buried in debt. My used car was even less than that. Today a new car of the same size runs somewhere between $25,000 and $30,000. I can’t even imagine where prices will go from there, or how the average person can afford anything. But anyway, right now today as I post this, ten thousand dollars you didn’t plan on dropping is kind of staggering, and staggering I certainly am.

It started on day one with the dog requiring an emergency veterinary visit, and then there were a few follow-up visits after that. That rolled out to almost $1000……so far. I have been asked, in case anyone else wonders: No, I don’t have veterinary medical insurance on the dog. When I adopted him he was not a puppy, and he already had some health stuff going on, so pet insurance was not really an option – at least not an affordable one. I feel there is no choice in this. When you take on the responsibility of an animal’s life, you take care of it the same way you should take care of one of your own children, period.

On day two I had to take my car in for service, as it had been making “a noise” for a while. Because I don’t hear well, although aware it was generating some kind of sound, I didn’t realize just how loud and persistent it was until a number of other people began to express concern about “the noise.” So I brought it in to deal with what turned out to be multiple issues causing a few of the loud sounds, and at the end of the day drove home a less noisy (but still not quiet) car – running up another almost $2000 more on my credit card in the process. I try to rationalize this by telling myself “look how much you saved by not spending $28,000 on a new car.” This is supposed to make me feel better, but so far it’s not quite doing the trick.

While waiting over a number of hours during that day for the interventions required to lower the decibel level on my car to be performed, I met a former coworker for a cup of coffee. She shared with me that she had recently had cataract surgery, and that she could not get the proper cataract replacement lenses she needed that would also address her severe astigmatism because the insurance company would not cover the Toric astigmatism IOL (intraocular) lenses, which they consider “cosmetic.” Because she would have had to pay a considerable amount out of pocket to to cover this, she ended up getting less effective lenses than what she needed. On top of that, she then would have to purchase new glasses to work with the new cataract lenses, since the old ones were no longer a viable prescription. But she would have to wait a while before she could get those glasses because the time period for when she got her last pair had not yet expired, and insurance wouldn’t cover the new pair. As she told me this story she sat there tilting her head and squinting, as she was not seeing as well as she should have been.

The reason she chose to forego this additional out of pocket expense for the Toric intraocular lenses to address astigmatism was because at the same time, her husband was purchasing a badly needed pair of hearing aids that cost thousands of dollars – which are also considered “cosmetic” by the insurance company and are not covered. They had to make a decision, and she chose to pass on the better lenses she really needed – ones that would be permanently implanted in her eyes – so that her husband could finally hear. I cannot tell you how deeply saddened and also enraged this left me feeling – not for her choice to sacrifice her own needs to benefit her husband, but for the fact that the insurance situation and lack of decent medical benefits in this country forced her to make this kind of a choice at all.

Synchronistically, the very next day I had an appointment to get fitted for new hearing aids, which I have been stalling on (for years) because of the high cost. A pair of hearing aids are made to last anywhere between three to five years. Sometimes you can try and stretch it so they will go beyond that, but really, they wear out, hearing changes (mine for the worse), and they make advances in technology that you can always hope will be more helpful. It was way beyond the time that I needed new ones. Also, I don’t have anything as a backup in the event that they fail, break, or get lost. In the past they have occasionally stopped working at some of the most inconvenient or inopportune times. This has rendered me suddenly and almost totally deaf, and it’s been a horrible and sometimes very scary experience to find yourself abruptly shut off. Given that, it has created a constant, nagging bit of anxiety in the back of my mind, knowing everything has been depending on these miniscule plastic housings which are smaller than a peanut shell, which contain teeny microphones, amplifiers, digital processors and microchips. What could possibly go wrong?

OK, I guess this is where The Rant truly begins.

So yes, the appointment, which had been scheduled weeks in advance, happened to fall right on the heels of the dog and the car. The hearing aids are $6800 for the pair. Six-thousand-eight-hundred-dollars. They are not covered by insurance. As previously stated, insurance companies consider hearing aids “cosmetic.” Are you getting this? “Cosmetic.” Like anyone would say “Hey, I think I need to go out and get me some of those cool-looking hearing aids to match my dress.” I think this is absolutely criminal.

A few friends have sent me articles about recent federal changes that provide for over-the-counter “more affordable” hearing aids that have been coming out on the market. Unfortunately, I am not a candidate for those, as my hearing loss is both uncommon and severe. I am also not a hearing aid newbie, the beginnings of this hearing loss journey occurring back when I was a young mother – I’ve been wearing them for over thirty years and I know what works for me, what doesn’t, and how to use them to the best advantage I can. Having tried a number of different brands, there is one particular brand that fits best for my loss, and it is their higher end processor that gives me enough clarity to navigate at least some of the world, some of the time. They are made by Oticon. As of this date, the latest generation to come out is called the Oticon “Real.” For what they cost they should call them Oticon “Real-Expensive.” Their profits must be through the roof.

I could go on to tell you how my Medicare Advantage Plan offers hearing aids for less by using a “middle-man” company. I could get into blasting the middle-man company, which I have been in contact with numerous times and which have been useless. Everyone on their list of local participating providers that I reached out to either don’t carry Oticons, or worse, some of those on the list provided by the insurance company are saying they don’t even participate with my insurance company! The last time I spoke to the middle-man company with my concerns, a “supervisor” was supposed to call me back – but never did.

I could tell you how an internet search brought up these hearing aids at what looked like a much more enticing price. But there are catches and loopholes, risks and even hidden costs in doing this. Ordering hearing aids off the internet is not a good idea for me. Having access to a licensed audiologist who can troubleshoot problems, make adjustments when your aids won’t pair to your phone or if a channel suddenly goes out, someone who can alter your settings to deal with ongoing fluctuations in your hearing, insure and repair your aids for the first three years, and someone who is available to get you in almost immediately……this is imperative.

To throw things even further into the abyss, my wonderful audiologist, who I had been seeing for decades and who worked closely with me to address the challenges of programming for “severe, progressive, bilateral reverse-slope hearing loss”, retired and moved out of state. So I had to start all over again with someone new who is familiar with the odd patient who has RSHL. Which hopefully will be the start of a beneficial relationship, but it just made the entire week feel a bit more difficult. I knew they were going to be expensive, but when I was told the pair would be $6800, the earth shifted for a second and I felt a slight wave of vertigo.

To break it down, the weekly cost of having these hearing aids over the three year period is $43.58. I have to pay $43.58 a week to be able to hear. Maybe a little less if I can make them last longer. Paying for the “privilege” of hearing. This is criminal.

It got me thinking more about my friend who had to make the sacrifice concerning her vision. Or about people who have to pay high prices for medication out of pocket because the pharma companies charge so much and the insurance companies don’t want to cover the drugs they are prescribed, thus being forced to accept a substitute that is not quite what they need. Or being in a position where they cannot get the prescribed medication, or a certain cancer drug (or the operation, or whatever it is they need to stay alive and functioning). There are so many horror stories out there.

I have another friend whose health and quality of life became greatly impacted when the insurance company decided to discontinue covering one of his medications that had been somewhat successfully treating his COPD. As if the right to breathe is not a human right.

Have any of you ever taken half (or less) of the maintenance medication you were prescribed because of the cost? I can’t tell you how many people I know take less and are hoarding their meds to cut down the cost or to make it last, because they are afraid someday they will not be covered and they will run out. So many of us depend on med samples from our providers to help bridge this gap.

Health care in this country is pathetic, and despite all the “promises” made by all parties and all administrations over all the years, it has not been fixed. I honestly wish that those responsible in these companies (and in our government) would personally end up being the victims of their own self-serving decisions and laws, not just regarding health care, but over a number of issues. I wish they all had to suffer the same consequences they have bestowed on others, and on those less fortunate than they are. OK, I’m stopping this part here instead of veering off into a major political rant.

The last time I bought hearing aids, I sold off all my percussion instruments except one in order to help defray the cost. I look around the house now to see if there is anything I might sell to soften the blow of the new ones. The price for a pair five or six years ago were about $1800 less than they are now. Inflation for these devices has hit a whole new high.

I realize ten-thousand dollars in five days is just a blip for some people. And while it is a bit of a surprise hit for me, the truth is that at least right now, I can (slowly) pay for these hearing aids without going into serious debt. I’m OK. I am not destitute. I’ve been putting away about $100 a month (although maybe I should have been putting away $200) for a long while now in anticipation of this day arriving. And (unfortunately) I will have to keep doing this in preparation for when it’s time for the next pair too, unless things in our healthcare system change.

After the hearing aid appointment, I went food shopping and filled my car with gas, adding another $200 onto the credit card. At this point I figured “what the hell” and bought myself a lobster roll for $8.99 in the deli section, just because – which I admit was oddly consoling.

That ten grand was supplemental income for a year. It could have been used for two entire “bucket list” vacations abroad. Or airfare for multiple trips to visit family who live far away. Or spent on some other enriching experience. It could have been a significant down payment on a new car. It could have gone towards a year of rent or mortgage. Or it could have been used to help someone else.

Right now I am rather disgusted, yet simultaneously able to put this in perspective; accepting and very grateful of the fact that – at least at this writing – I am in the fortunate position of being able to provide medical care for my dog, that I can still drive around in my old but now-less-noisy car, and that for the next three-to-five years I will sort of be able to hear some things, in addition to having my old aids as back-ups should anything go wrong. Everything is really OK. I’m lucky and I know it. Really. I guess I just needed to vent.

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