Does Medicare cover hearing aids?

For an adult turning 65 in the U.S. in 2026, "does Medicare cover hearing aids?" is the single most common question about hearing care. The answer is more nuanced than the headline yes-or-no, and the nuance is where most of the practical money is.

Why Original Medicare doesn't cover hearing aids

The exclusion is statutory. The Social Security Amendments of 1965 that created Medicare specifically excluded hearing aids, dentures, eyeglasses, and orthopedic shoes from coverage. The reasoning at the time was that these were considered "routine" items rather than acute medical care. Six decades later, the exclusion has persisted through multiple reform attempts.

Health policy research on this gap is extensive. A 2022 review by researchers from Johns Hopkins documented how the Medicare exclusion, combined with the historical bundled-care model in audiology, produced an affordability barrier that delayed treatment for older adults for years — one of the explicit motivations behind the 2017 OTC Hearing Aid Act and the FDA's 2022 OTC Final Rule (Myers, Reed, Lin, Willink, Seminars in Hearing, 2022).

What Original Medicare does cover, per Medicare.gov:

• Diagnostic hearing and balance exams, when ordered by a doctor or non-physician practitioner to evaluate a specific medical condition. These are not the same as the "routine hearing test" you might book on your own — they require a medical reason.
• Hearing rehabilitation services after a cochlear implant or other covered ear procedure.
• Bone-anchored hearing aids (BAHAs) and cochlear implants, which are categorized as surgically implanted prosthetic devices rather than hearing aids. These are covered under Part B when clinical criteria are met.

What it explicitly does not cover:

• Hearing aids of any kind — OTC, prescription, or self-fitting.
• Hearing aid fittings.
• Routine hearing exams not tied to a specific medical condition.

Medicare Advantage (Part C) is where hearing aid benefits live

Medicare Advantage plans are private insurance alternatives to Original Medicare. They are required to cover everything Original Medicare covers, but they can — and most do — add benefits Original Medicare excludes. In 2026, approximately 97% of Medicare Advantage plans include some form of hearing benefit.

The shape of that benefit varies widely across plans:

• Routine hearing exams at $0 copay are common.
• Hearing-aid allowances range from roughly $500 to $2,500+ per ear, with many plans capping coverage at a fixed dollar amount every two or three years.
• Network restrictions often apply — the plan may require you to use a specific dispenser network (such as UnitedHealthcare's contracted audiology network) and a specific brand of hearing aid.
• Trial periods and warranties typically follow the in-network provider's terms, not the plan's.

Practical advice if you have Medicare Advantage and are buying hearing aids:

1. Pull your plan's current Annual Notice of Change and Summary of Benefits. The hearing benefit is usually listed under "Additional Benefits" or "Optional Supplemental Benefits."
2. Confirm the in-network dispensers in your zip code and the brands they carry.
3. Ask the dispenser in writing what your out-of-pocket cost will be after the plan allowance, including any required follow-up fees.
4. Compare that to Costco (typically $1,400–$3,000 per pair, no plan needed) and to the relevant OTC categories. The plan path is not automatically the cheapest.

Medigap and Medicare Part D

Medicare Supplement (Medigap) plans cover cost-sharing on items Original Medicare already pays for. Because Original Medicare does not cover hearing aids, Medigap does not cover hearing aids either. Medicare Part D is for prescription drugs and is unrelated.

HSA and FSA: pretax dollars for hearing aids

Hearing aids, hearing aid batteries, and hearing exams are qualified medical expenses under IRS Publication 502, which means they are eligible for tax-advantaged purchase through:

• Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), paired with high-deductible health plans.
• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs), typically employer-sponsored.
• Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs), depending on plan design.

For a working adult buying a $3,000 pair of hearing aids, using pretax HSA or FSA dollars effectively reduces the cost by your marginal federal and state tax rate — commonly 25–35%.

VA hearing aids: free for enrolled veterans

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs provides hearing aids and hearing care to enrolled veterans at no cost, including:

• The hearing test (audiology is one of the few VA services you can schedule directly, without a primary-care referral).
• The hearing aids themselves — premium devices from multiple manufacturers.
• Fittings, repairs, and future batteries, indefinitely, as long as VA eligibility is maintained.
• Surgically implantable devices such as cochlear implants for severe to profound loss, at over 125 sites of care.

Service connection is not required. Any veteran enrolled and eligible for VA care is eligible for hearing aids. Full details are on the VA Rehabilitation and Prosthetic Services page.

Cochlear implants are different

A cochlear implant is not a hearing aid. It is a surgically implanted prosthetic device that bypasses damaged parts of the inner ear and stimulates the auditory nerve directly. Because of that classification, cochlear implants are covered by Original Medicare Part B as durable medical equipment / prosthetic devices when National Coverage Determination criteria are met. Bone-anchored hearing aids (BAHAs) are also covered under the same prosthetics framework. The fact that hearing aids are excluded does not mean Medicare is silent on hearing care in the surgical sense.

Common questions, short answers

• Does Medicare cover an audiogram? Yes, if it is a diagnostic exam ordered by a doctor to evaluate a medical condition. No, if it is a routine hearing check you arrange on your own.
• Will Medicare ever cover hearing aids? Legislative attempts have been made repeatedly (most recently in the 2021–2022 Build Back Better debate); the statutory exclusion remains in place in 2026.
• Can I use Medicare and HSA/FSA together? You generally cannot contribute new dollars to an HSA once you are enrolled in any part of Medicare, but you can still spend down an existing HSA on hearing aids and other qualified expenses. FSA contributions depend on continued employment.
• What if I have a Medicare Advantage plan and want to buy AirPods Pro? AirPods Pro hearing aid mode is not an in-network "hearing aid" for plan reimbursement purposes. Use HSA/FSA dollars instead.

The bottom line

The 2026 reality is more navigable than the bare answer "Medicare doesn't cover hearing aids" suggests. Most adults aged 65+ have access to at least one of four real coverage paths — Medicare Advantage, HSA/FSA, VA, or out-of-pocket within the new OTC category — and most also have access to Costco's warehouse-priced prescription option. The most common mistake is assuming the answer is fully "no" and paying full retail for a clinic-bundled prescription pair when one of the four paths above would have applied.