Senator Introduces Legislation to Cut Red Tape for Veterans to Get Care for Hearing Loss

(KNSI) — Minnesota Senator Tina Smith is introducing a bill that would help veterans get care for service-related hearing loss.

Senator Smith says she was made aware of the issue while taking her through ten Minnesota communities on a veterans healthcare tour. She says hearing loss was one of the most common issues reported by veterans but says they had enormous hoops to jump through to get hearing tests and hearing aids covered by their VA benefits.

“Well, you have to basically go back and sort of track where you served and how long you served, and you have to provide that documentation to the Veterans Administration and then they have to validate it, and then you’ve got to find the right person and you can keep pushing at it and many of the claims, you can be successful, but it’s just takes a lot of time. And then sometimes veterans end up hiring somebody to help them with that process, and that costs money and meanwhile, they’re struggling and it seems to me, hearing is part of our overall health. It doesn’t make any sense to me that you would have to jump through all these special hoops to get hearing coverage. Why should that be different from other coverage that you receive? Hearing his health and that is our commitment to our veterans to cover their healthcare needs after they’ve served.”

The legislation, dubbed the Veterans Hearing Benefit Act of 2022, would make it easier for veterans to get coverage by automatically assuming their hearing loss was due to their service. Smith explains that “if I am a veteran, I have hearing loss and I served, say I worked for an extended period of time around artillery. The Veterans Administration would just presume that the reason I had hearing loss was because of my service, and they would automatically cover the cost of the hearing aids that I needed. And that means it’s so much simpler for veterans and also just get them the care that they need a lot quicker.”

Now that the government is more aware that hearing loss is such an issue with older veterans, measures are being taken on the front end for those serving now and in more recent conflicts to protect their hearing and prevent service-connected hearing loss. During World War II, in Korea, and the Vietnam War, hearing protection wasn’t as advanced as it is today, so Smith says, “those are the veterans I am thinking about the most.”

The new legislation, which she hopes will garner bi-partisan support, would cover all veterans regardless of their service date.

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