Hearing Aids for Seniors: Who Pays at 65 and Older, Route by Route

What hearing aids cost before anyone pays

No federal source publishes an average price paid by people over 65. The nearest national figure comes from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Its May 7, 2024 report on over-the-counter hearing aids, relaying a 2023 article in The Hearing Journal, says prescription hearing aids can range from $1,000 to $6,000 per pair, and over-the-counter (OTC) aids from around $200 to over $1,000, depending on the device's technology. GAO relayed that range without measuring it, for buyers of every age.

Medicaid's claim records give a second, different kind of number. For code V5261, a digital behind-the-ear hearing aid fitted to both ears, Medicaid paid an average of $1,405.85 per claim line from January 2023 to December 2024, with 2024 still preliminary, across all ages. That is what one public payer paid under its own fee rules, not a shelf price. Fitting, ear molds, batteries and repairs are billed on separate lines, so a single line never shows the whole bill.

Medicare at 65: Original Medicare, Medigap and Medicare Advantage

The Social Security Administration's Medicare page speaks of people 65 or older, and of some younger people who qualify on other grounds. Joining at that age changes nothing for hearing aids under Original Medicare. Medicare.gov states that Medicare doesn't cover hearing aids or exams for fitting them, and that you pay all costs for non-covered services. The federal rule behind that line, 42 CFR 411.15(d), excludes "Hearing aids or examinations for the purpose of prescribing, fitting, or changing hearing aids."

A Medigap policy doesn't close the gap either. Medicare.gov's Medigap overview says these plans help cover your share of costs for services Original Medicare covers, and it lists hearing aids among what “Medigap plans generally don’t cover.”

Medicare Advantage (Part C) is where hearing benefits appear. In the plan benefit files CMS published for 2026, 5,298 of 5,599 plan segments (94.6%) file a supplemental benefit for prescription hearing aids, and 2,103 (37.6%) file one for OTC hearing aids. Of the 4,715 segments that report a per-aid copay, the median top copay filed is $850. Read these as filings, not as people: a segment with few members counts as much as a large one, and the counts are not broken down by age. Each plan's Evidence of Coverage sets the copay, the cap and the providers.

We don't name, compare or refer anyone to plans. Our Medicare Advantage page goes further into the filings, and our Medicare page covers the exclusion and the bills in Congress that would change it.

Medicaid after 21: the state rule decides

Medicaid can pay for an adult's hearing aids, but each state writes its own rule, and the federal children's benefit, EPSDT, ends at 21. Three published rules show how far apart states sit:

• Washington covers, for "clients age twenty-one and older," one new nonrefurbished monaural hearing aid, ear mold included, every five years.
• Minnesota covers "one hearing aid or set of binaural hearing aids within a period of five years for an eligible member aged 21 years and over."
• Alabama limits audiological function tests and hearing aids to people eligible for treatment under EPSDT, so its rule names no general adult device benefit.

Each rule carries clinical and program conditions we don't reproduce, and none of them tells you whether you qualify. Your state Medicaid agency or its managed care plan holds that answer; our Medicaid page lists more state rules.

Medicaid's claim records also show what comes back after the purchase. Nationally, from January 2023 to December 2024, Medicaid paid an average of $21.78 per claim line for hearing aid batteries (V5266) and $73.49 per line for repairs or modifications (V5014). Those averages lean on few sellers: for V5261, 88 billing providers appear, and the largest one received 37.6% of the amount paid.

Outside Medicaid, some states run their own hearing aid programs for older residents. Oklahoma's SCHAP, run by the Department of Rehabilitation Services, “provides one hearing aid to qualifying senior citizens” who are at least 60, live in Oklahoma and have a limited income. New Jersey's HAAAD reimburses up to $500 for one hearing aid, or $1,000 for two, per calendar year, for residents “above the age of 65” or aged 18 to 64 and receiving Social Security Disability benefits, within its published income limits. Our free hearing aids page lists both with their conditions.

Veterans and military retirees

For veterans, the route starts with enrollment. The VA's prosthetics service lays it out: apply for VA health care (by mail, Form 10-10EZ goes to the medical center of your choice), then book an evaluation at the Audiology and Speech Pathology Clinic, where "The audiologist will make a clinical determination on the need for hearing aids." If hearing aids are recommended and fit, "the hearing aids, repairs, and future batteries will all be at no charge to you, as long as you maintain VA eligibility for care."

So upkeep is part of the benefit, and it lasts as long as eligibility does, not for the life of the device.

Military retirees face a different rule. TRICARE says it "doesn’t cover hearing aids for retirees" and points to other government programs, the VA among them. Through RACHAP, a person eligible for care at a military hospital or clinic may be able to buy hearing aids at a reduced cost at certain of those facilities. Our VA hearing aids page covers the forms, battery orders and CHAMPVA.

Buying over the counter at 65 or older

Under 21 CFR 800.30, an OTC hearing aid is meant for a person "age 18 or older to compensate for perceived mild to moderate hearing impairment," and it can be sold "without the supervision, prescription, or other order, involvement, or intervention of a licensed person, to consumers through in-person transactions, by mail, or online." The text sets an age floor of 18 and names no upper age.

Past 65, the open question is who pays. An OTC purchase comes out of your own pocket unless a plan says otherwise: 2,103 of the 5,599 Medicare Advantage plan segments file an OTC hearing aid benefit for 2026, so the plan's documents are the place to check before buying. GAO relays a price range of around $200 to over $1,000 for OTC aids.

Whether an OTC aid suits a given hearing loss is a question for a hearing care professional, not for this page. See our OTC hearing aids page.

Taxes: the medical deduction and the larger standard deduction at 65

IRS Publication 502 says "You can include in medical expenses the cost of a hearing aid and batteries, repairs, and maintenance needed to operate it." Two limits follow. Only the part of your medical and dental expenses above 7.5% of adjusted gross income counts, and only if you itemize on Schedule A. The IRS adds that "You can't take the standard deduction if you itemize your deductions."

Age enters here. The IRS allows "an additional deduction if you're age 65 or older at the end of the tax year," and for 2026 it sets that additional amount for the aged or the blind at $1,650, or $2,050 for someone who is also unmarried and not a surviving spouse. A larger standard deduction raises the bar that itemized deductions have to clear, and the Schedule A instructions say that "In most cases, your federal income tax will be less if you take the larger of your itemized deductions or your standard deduction."

The same pair of hearing aids can therefore lower one retiree's tax and leave another's unchanged. We calculate no one's deduction; our tax page goes through the rules.