FDA to Allow Buying Hearing Aides over the Counter- But Free Hearing Benefits on Chopping Block in Care Infrastructure Bill
A long-awaited Food and Drug Administration proposal would allow millions of consumers to buy over-the-counter hearing aids in stores or online without a prescription or medical exam.
More than four years after Congress ordered the agency to allow over-the-counter hearing aids, it took the first step Tuesday to broaden access to more accessible and affordable devices for millions of patients with mild to moderate hearing loss. The agency’s proposal would create a new category of over-the-counter hearing aids and supersede state-level regulations that require patients to go through physicians or audiologists to get prescriptions and fittings for them.
Infrastructure Trapped in Party Line Clash
President Biden’s Care Infrastruce bill is now trapped in a party-line clash where hearing benefits under Medicare will be ditched as the GOP is pulling away from the centrists that voted for it. Nineteen votes for the bill came from Republicans 2 months ago, as the Republican party is opposed to the Care infrastructure Bill
Progressives Hold The Line for Care Infrastructures for Seniors, Women Families
House Democratic Progressives held the line in a weeklong standoff with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who reversed course and canceled plans to vote on the infrastructure bill with the support of President Joe
Biden. He told House Democrats the votes weren’t there to pass that bill without the larger social policy bill.
Biden Says Care Infrastructure Price Tag Must Come Down
President Biden told Democrats the initial $3.5 trillion price tag would have to be reduced, and that the talks ranged up to $2.3 trillion, a source familiar with the meeting said Centrist Sen. Joe
Manchin, D-W.Va., floated a $1.5 trillion counteroffer that some decried as being too small. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., has declined to say what she’d back, frustrating her colleagues.
- Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said he aims to pass a bipartisan infrastructure bill and Democrats’ broader investment in the social safety net and climate policy by the end of October.
- The House delayed a vote on the Senate-passed infrastructure proposal as progressives sought an agreement on the larger piece of President Joe Biden’s economic agenda.
- Democrats are negotiating a compromise between centrists and progressives on a plan to invest in child care, paid leave, health care, education, and the fight against climate change.
If You Are a Woman or Work In Aging Call Your Congressman
Care Infrastructure may wait long if folks in health care and older constituents do not contact their congressman and tell them to support this bill. They control the votes for the bill, and you have to let them know you will only vote for them if they do. Common Cause has this easy way to find and contact your congressman. If you believe in Medicare and seniors’ right not to have their teeth rot, not hear their grandkids or be unable to read a book- do it now.
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