1. This week Biden did something quite useful on monopoly. 40 million Americans have some form of hearing loss. And yet hearing aids, unlike most other consumer technologies, are super expensive and haven't dropped in price for decades. Why? mattstoller.substack.com/p/silencing-th…
2. The answer is... monopoly. Nearly all hearing aids come from a cartel of firms that own all parts of the hearing aid supply chain. mattstoller.substack.com/p/silencing-th… 
3. These hearing aid firms have joined together to pool patents, so just to enter the market requires paying them a private tax. himpp.info/about-himpp/id…
4. The cartel is vertically integrated, meaning that they own networks of audiologists and hearing aid specialists. They also run the hearing benefit part of your insurance company. Conflict of interest much?
5. So far, this cycle, Starkey, which is one of the hearing aid cartel members, has spent $1.6 million on campaign donations. opensecrets.org/orgs/starkey-h…
6. Starkey set up a lobbying advocacy group called "Listen Carefully" to exempt hearing aids from competitive bidding requirements in any Medicare expansion. And oh yeah, one of the key targets for their $$$ is Joe Manchin. mattstoller.substack.com/p/silencing-th…
7. In 2017, Chuck Grassley and Elizabeth Warren teamed up to take on this cartel, passing a bill to allow hearing aids to be sold over the counter instead of with a prescription. Bose is now entering the market. mattstoller.substack.com/p/silencing-th…
8. But the FDA refused to implement the law, until the Biden administration forced them to do so. This week the FDA wrote rules to allow over the counter hearing aids. Still, we need more action. mattstoller.substack.com/p/silencing-th…
9. From 2017-2021, the hearing aid cartel spent massive on lobbying. They also bought up nascent competitors. Sonova bought Sennheiser's consumer division, Starkey bought Bragi's hardware division, and HIMPP acquired patents from SoundID, SoundHawk, iHear, Acouva, and ExSilent.
10. So basically, if you use insurance and have hearing loss, you will be directed to a subsidiary of a hearing aid manufacturer. You will ask 'do I need a hearing aid?" And they will say "Yes, you need one of ours, the most expensive one!"
11. You may not have hearing loss. But this industry structure is very similar to that of glasses/contact lenses, controlled by Luxottica, and dentistry, controlled by Harry Shine. If you have eyes, ears, or a throat, this is for you. mattstoller.substack.com/p/silencing-th…
12. Thanks to @HearingTracker for the excellent chart. Check out his excellent site for all things hearing aid-related. hearingtracker.com
13. And if you like this kind of work exposing and writing about monopoly power across our economy, consider a subscription to my newsletter. mattstoller.substack.com/subscribe
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