Hearing Aid Plan extended past July 1 for children in city
Hearing impaired children in Saskatoon can continue to access the subsidized provincial hearing aid plan after its scheduled July 1 termination date.
Health Minister Jim Reiter said the program will continue to run until the government is confident the private sector can pick up the slack.
“My ministry officials tell me that there’s not as robust a private sector to be able to provide hearing aid services to children in Saskatoon because of the size of the program that Saskatoon Health Region’s had,” Reiter said. “So what we’ve done, we want to try to ensure there’s as little gap as possible in service, so we’ve slowed down that wind down in Saskatoon while ministry officials consult with private audiologists to ensure that services will be available.”
The government announced this spring that it is scrapping the Hearing Aid Plan (HAP) for everyone except low-income residents. Eliminating coverage of audiological evaluations and subsidized hearing aids is expected to save the government $3 million annually.
According to an email sent to concerned parents, children in Saskatoon will be able to access services such as hearing aid fittings, repairs, counselling and education during an undefined interim period. Subsidized hearing aids will also be available during this time.
Peter Morris’ 13-year-old daughter Mary-Jayne Morris has been using HAP her whole life. Morris describes her as the perfect example of why HAP is important; because of the help the program has provided, Mary-Jayne is a successful student who is well-integrated in society.
Morris said the delayed winddown of HAP shows the government didn’t do its homework when deciding to get rid of it. “Shouldn’t they have done this before they decided to close HAP?” he said.
He added that confusion about when the program is coming to an end has been frustrating. He would like to know how much longer the program will continue, but no one he’s talked to has given him any indication of this. “We’re still very much in the dark as to where we go from here,” he said.