For Immediate Release:  Tuesday, June 6, 2017  

(LEXINGTON, Ky.) – Kentuckians know to be nervous when it comes to large and stealth power grabs by the federal government and its out-of-control regulatory regime, particularly that of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).Such is the case with the Over the Counter Hearing Aid Act of 2016 co-sponsored by Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, the House version of which likely will be considered in Washington this week.

Fortunately, U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Bowling Green, who serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which will hear the bill, must push back against yet another federal takeover of an important health-care sector: hearing loss.

The FDA seeks the power to slap new regulations on over-the-counter hearing aids and pre-empt state hearing-aid laws, leaving Kentucky powerless to create hearing policies that benefit its own citizens and instead turning over more of our healthcare decisions to the federal government.

Supporters of the measure incorrectly claim the bill will increase consumer access to hearing aids, ignoring the fact that over-the-counter devices known as personal sound amplification products (PSAPs) already are available for purchase simply by logging on to Amazon or going to your local Best Buy – all without the federal government’s meddling.

“This isn’t the first exposure Kentuckians have had to unhealthy FDA policy,” said Jim Waters, president and CEO of the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions, Kentucky’s first and only free-market think tank. “Amish farmer Sam Girod right now sits in a Lexington jail cell facing the possibility of a 48-year prison sentence, courtesy of FDA thugs who bullied their way to a felony conviction against the father of 12 simply for producing skin salves made from chickweed and bloodroot, which the government agency accused him of using to turn wild and edible weeds into a potent drug.”

“The FDA has become deaf to its mission of informing and protecting citizens and increasingly opposes our freedoms,” Waters added. “This ill-advised legislation seeks to regulate PSAPs as hearing aids, eliminating the important role doctors play in diagnosing and treating hearing loss along with driving up the costs of current over-the-counter products.”

PSAPs are used for recreational purposes like hunting or birdwatching. They simply amplify noise.

Hearing aids, on the other hand, which are available after a screening, diagnosis and prescription from an audiologist, are highly customized to treat a patient’s unique and complex hearing-loss situation.

Not only will this bill’s regulations fail to improve health outcomes, they likely will have unintended consequences, including regulating PSPAPs used for hunting – all of which raises unnecessary questions about whether the FDA will be open to the availability of hunting aids, a fact which resulted in the Gun Owners of America coming out in opposition to this bill last week.

When Guthrie voted along with his fellow conservatives to repeal the Obamacare monstrosity, the congressman described his vote this way: “We have a historic opportunity to reverse Obamacare’s dangerous course and give power back to the states, patients, and doctors.”

Hear, hear.

It’s time yet again for Guthrie and others who believe in the principles of limited government and individual liberty to rise to the occasion and provide the backstop to this foolhardy regulatory legislation.

For more information or comment, please contact Jim Waters at jwaters@freedomkentucky.com, 859.444.5630 ext. 102 (office) or 270.320.4376 (cell).