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EDITORIALS

Ring in the New Year

Saturday, December 15, 2007

BY JEANINE GLEBA

A

nother legislative session is coming to an end and lawmakers are
scrambling to push through their legislation along with the governor's
priorities. Thousands of bills will need to be reintroduced in January
2008. Only a select few will actually become law. Two bills -- A-289 and
S-1524, both dubbed Grace's Law for an 8-year-old child who wears hearing
aids -- provides insurance coverage for hearing aids for children under
age 15.

Bill A-289, sponsored by Speaker Joe Roberts and Assemblymen Neil Cohen
and Chris Bate man, is ready for its second reading in the Assembly. It is
imperative that its Senate sister bill be taken up and posted in the
Commerce Committee and also moved to a vote. It is so important to New
Jersey's deaf and hard-of-hearing children that both bills join together
and become law this legislative ses sion. Not next year, not five years
from now. The children need to hear today and every day for the rest of
their lives.

Hearing loss is the No. 1 birth defect in America. There are also many
children who are born with normal hearing but who develop hearing loss
after birth. Some families have more than one child with hearing loss.

Hearing loss is called the invisible disability because it is so often
neglected, minimized and forgotten. Assistive equipment for other
disabilities and conditions are covered by insurance, but hearing aids are
almost always excluded. They are still considered a luxury item, no matter
the research findings that prove their medical necessity.

Hearing aids are crucial to speech and language development in
children, not to mention the social implications and their safety and
welfare. Children with a mild uncorrected hearing loss, even in only one
ear, have been found to miss 25 percent to 50 percent of classroom speech.
They are more likely to be held back at least one grade compared to
children with normal hearing. According to the Deafness Research
Foundation, a child who is not identified or treated early for hearing
loss costs taxpayers an additional $420,000 for special education -- and
approximately $1 million over his or her lifetime. The bottom line: If
insurance doesn't pay for hearing aids, taxpayers pay for the rehab costs
for the rest of the child's educational career, and later in life, with
the loss of productivity/loss of wages ($122 billion annually according to
the Hearing Review).

Gov. Jon Corzine wants New Jersey to be a leader in health care.
Insurance for children has always been on his agenda. Grace's Law should
transcend the state's pay- to-play politics. It should transcend political
parties. It should not get bogged down, the victim of myriad political
excuses.

Giving children the sense of hearing is priceless. If ever there was a
priority for an agenda, this is it.

I'm dreaming of a holiday season in which children who are deaf or hard
of hearing can hark the angels sing, listen for Santa's reindeer bell and
ring in the New Year wearing hats and hearing the horns blow. I'm dreaming
of a future in which these children can have a voice of their own. Pass
Grace's Law once and for all. It's a no- brainer.

Jeanine Gleba lobbies for the deaf community. Grace's Law is
named after her daughter.

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