I am Timothy Babulski, an artist, author and art educator.

When I was two years old, I contracted viral meningitis. I was hospitalized for more than 21 days. The doctor told my parents that I was unlikely to live and, that if I did, there was a possibility that I would be deaf and blind and would likely never walk or talk. But I lived. I walked. Eventually I talked. I can see (well as much as a middle-aged man can normally see). But I have had asymmetric sensorineural hearing loss my entire life; moderate in my good right ear, more severe in my left.

Still, my family was not able to afford much. The hearing aids in the 1980s weren't very sophisticated despite their prohibitive cost. And they were warned that I would be stigmatized by classmates and teachers alike if I used them.

It would be nearly four decades before hearing aids even seemed possible when President Biden pledged to make them affordable. But that was a bit of a white lie. The sorts of hearing aids Biden's FDA made more affordable were over-the-counter for mild to moderate hearing loss—not the specialized aids I would need to overcome the damage of a long-ago childhood ailment. Still, with ACA subsidies and middling insurance, I could just about afford them (even if it took me two years to pay off the medical debt).

But now the ACA subsidies are gone. My insurance deductible is fully eight times higher than it was just four years ago. The warranty was up a year ago. And it's time for new hearing aids before the ones I have now stop working.

The full cost of a pair of hearing aids is $5,800.