Hearing loss an 'invisible,' and widely uninsured, problem
By Jen Christensen, CNN
(CNN) - If you lose a leg, insurance will likely cover the cost of your prosthesis. If you lose your arm, it's the same. Even if you lose your ability to perform sexually, more than likely your Viagra is covered.
But if you start to lose your hearing, far too often you are on your own.
If hearing loss were officially considered a disability, it would rank as the largest disability class in the country. Some 37 million people suffer from hearing loss, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and that number will only grow as the population ages.
Yet most private medical insurance doesn't cover the cost of hearing aids. While the Department of Veterans Affairs often pays for them, in most cases Medicare, which covers many more people, does not.
Opinion: Hey, baby boomer parents, back off!
Editor's note: Sally Koslow is the author of "Slouching Toward Adulthood: Observations from the Not-So-Empty Nest" (Viking).
By Sally Koslow, Special to CNN
(CNN) - Dear baby boomer parents,
It's time to talk. After people my age were done growing our hair long, wearing our bell bottoms and protesting the Vietnam War, we got jobs, mortgages, high cholesterol and bunions. Many of us also educated children - often at colleges that would never have admitted us - and groomed our kids to expect and accept only the best, never dreaming that they'd graduate into an economy that would crush even some of the brightest.
Plenty of our children have gotten the short straw.
Some 53% of people younger than 25 are unemployed or underemployed. Many have been crippled by indecision, picking a direction, reversing it, spinning the dial again, and flying two stars to the right, straight on till morning before they return to live with us again.
Youth unemployment seen as 'scarring' by global group
By Annalyn Censky @CNNMoney
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) - As the jobs crisis drags on, high unemployment could permanently damage the economic prospects of the world's youngest workers, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) warned Tuesday.
A lack of jobs for workers ages 15 to 24 could create a "scarring effect" on their long-term career paths and future earnings prospects, the OECD said.
Last year, about 18.6% of youth were neither employed nor in school or training programs across the OECD's 34 countries, the think tank said.
In the United States, that percentage was 14.8%.
About In America
What defines you? Maybe it’s the shade of your skin, the place you grew up, the accent in your words, the make up of your family, the gender you were born with, the intimate relationships you chose to have or your generation? As the American identity changes we will be there to report it. In America is a venue for creative and timely sharing of news that explores who we are. Reach us at inamerica@cnn.com.
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