Unlikely alliance on hearing aid bill

Georgia’s Buddy Carter, Massachusetts’ Warren push low-cost option.

WASHINGTON— Massachusetts U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren is one of the right’s favorite liberal bogeymen. Passing references to her left-leaning ideology, rumored presidential ambition and rise to fame as an architect of the divisive Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are frequently invoked with contempt in Republican circles.

What’s less common is using the first-term Democrat to pressure Republicans to buckle on policy issues.

But that’s exactly what a new television and digital ad airing in Georgia’s 1st Congressional District is looking to do in an underthe-radar fight over hearing aids.

The campaign is an example of how even the few remaining bipartisan health care proposals on Capitol Hill can end up the subject of a political brawl in an increasingly polarized Washington.

The Virginia-based Frontiers of Freedom, a conservative nonprofit that lobbies for limited government and a strong national defense, is investing six figures — and possibly more down the road — into convincing southeast Georgia voters that their congressman, Buddy Carter, should abandon his effort to create a lower-cost option for hearing aids. Warren

is a co-sponsor in the Senate.

“Warren and Carter have introduced hearing aid legislation that will eliminate states’ rights, expand the size and power of the federal government, resulting in higher prices for consumers,” the ad’s narrator states. “We expect these bait-and-switch liberal tactics from Elizabeth Warren, not Buddy Carter.”

The proposal would create a new over-the-counter category for so-called personal sound amplification products, considered low-cost cousins of the hearing aid. It’s aimed at people with mild or moderate hearing loss, and it’s also popular with hunters. Carter and Warren’s proposal would eliminate a requirement that people receive a medical evaluation before getting their hands on a device.

Proponents say the changes would expand access to the roughly 24 million people the AARP estimates suffer from hearing loss but don’t use hearing aids.

A handful of manufacturers currently control the vast majority of the world’s market for hearing aids. Insurance to help handle the costs, which typically run thousands of dollars per earpiece, is often thin, and Medicare doesn’t cover the devices.

Carter, a Republican from Pooler, said his proposal would help break up the monopoly.

“Opening up this closed market will increase competition to make hearing aids more affordable and accessible,” he said.

He called Frontiers of Freedom’s criticism “truly baffling.”

“Patients should have access to hearing aids if they need them,” he said, “and this is an important step to ensuring that happens.”

Carter is one of several Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee to back the measure, along with the AARP, consumer tech groups, the Libertarian Niskanen Center and U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga.

Frontiers of Freedom said it’s running ads in three congressional districts, urging voters to demand their Republican representatives abandon support for the effort, which has been attached to must-pass legislation to reauthorize the Food and Drug Administration.

“Republicans should focus on ways to limit federal authority and empower state governments rather than take marching orders from Elizabeth Warren in her mission to grow the size of government,” said George Landrith, the group’s president.

Other opponents of the effort include hearing aid manufacturers and audiologists, who worry it will cut into their bottom line and lead to self-diagnosing. Gun Owners of America, a firearms rights group that frequently tacks to the right of the National Rifle Association, also opposes the proposal. It says Warren can’t be trusted — on the Second Amendment and most other issues.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee advanced the legislation Wednesday. It must be passed by the full House and the Senate before it can be sent to President Donald Trump’s desk for his signature.