Getting a pair of hearing aids can cost up to $5,000. The White House says they should be as little as a few hundred dollars. And it says it has a plan to make that possible: deregulate the market to increase competition.
The White House has zeroed in on hearing aids as part of a broad campaign to lower consumer prices by boosting competition, a push that has taken on renewed urgency with inflation at a 40-year high.
At present, just four manufacturers control 84% of the hearing-aid market, according to the Open Markets Institute, a think tank critical of corporate concentration. The reason, analysts say, is federal and state rules that compel manufacturers to sell through medical professionals. That added burden deters potential new market entrants, some industry analysts say.
In response, President Biden directed the Food and Drug Administration last year to speed up…
