More than half of U.S. states require health insurance plans to cover hearing aids for children, but California does not. One local teenager is working with advocates to change that.<\/p>\n
Chase Klugo was diagnosed with hearing loss as an infant. He and his sister both inherited a genetic condition that affects their hearing.<\/p>\n
Klugo, who plays tennis, recently helped his high school team win a title. But he is also fighting off the court, joining hundreds of families who are urging California to expand coverage for children who need hearing aids.<\/p>\n
\u201cI personally have hearing aids, as you can see right here, in both of my ears,\u201d Klugo said. \u201cI can hear about 10% without my hearing aids.\u201d<\/p>\n
Advocates say mandated coverage for hearing aids has received bipartisan support in California, but Gov. Gavin Newsom has raised concerns about adding new requirements to the state\u2019s health insurance system.<\/p>\n
Klugo said he hopes sharing his story will help put pressure on state leaders.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honest, it\u2019s just bringing as much attention to the issue as possible and making an environment where Newsom feels like it\u2019s the right thing to do, and it\u2019s a no-brainer,\u201d Klugo said.<\/p>\n
Advocates say they have submitted a proposal to the governor that they believe addresses his concerns. A final decision is expected June 15.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than half of U.S. states require health insurance plans to cover hearing aids for children, but California…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,1280],"class_list":["post-358696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-health-care"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}