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Biden Pushes For Hearing Aids To Be Sold Over The Counter

Hearing aids (Chris Jackson/Getty Images)
Hearing aids (Chris Jackson/Getty Images)

President Biden signed a new executive order on competition that seeks to allow hearing aids to be sold over the counter at pharmacies.

Traditional hearing aids cost $5,000 per pair on average, and they are often not covered by private insurance plans or Medicare.

Here & Now‘s Peter O’Dowd speaks with Meaghan P. Reed, director of clinical audiology at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, about what over-the-counter hearing aids could mean for the 37 million American adults with hearing loss.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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