Edward C. Halperin is a professor of radiation oncology, pediatrics, and history.

Getting caught in the crossfire of the hearing aid wars

Policy
June 24, 2024

My hearing precipitously declined four years ago. As a patient and practicing physician, I became dependent upon hearing aids. Thus, I was introduced to the off-putting business of hearing aids in America.

The American hearing aid market is estimated to generate between $3 to 4 billion per year annually. It is expected to grow six to eight percent annually as our population ages. Assistive listening devices can be a vast mystery …

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Getting caught in the crossfire of the hearing aid wars

We want a federal budget where the trade-offs support life, not death

Physician
April 5, 2017

When I entered college, I took a course in introductory economics. Human wants are unlimited, I learned, but resources are limited. Therefore, we have to make choices about what we spend money on. That, I was told, was what economics was all about — how we make choices and allocate resources.

My economics textbook illustrated the point by quoting from Nazi Germany’s Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels who said: “We can do …

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We want a federal budget where the trade-offs support life, not death