Help Ron Gottardi Advocate for Hearing Health for Seniors

My name is Ron Gottardi and I represent a hearing health advocacy non-profit association called The Time to Hear is Here (sm). I give presentations on hearing health and help to seniors. They hear about startling new scientific studies that expose how we have vastly underestimated the prevalence of hearing loss among the elderly. In a nationally representative sample of older Medicare participants aged 71 or above, almost two-thirds (65.3%)—corresponding to an estimated 21.5 million individuals—had some degree of hearing loss. By age 80, 84% had hearing issues. By age 90, nearly all (96.2%) had hearing loss. However, only 29.2% of those with hearing loss used hearing aids.

In these presentations, seniors also hear how much hearing loss impacts quality of life and contributes to early death, how seniors are badly short-changed in public policy economics, particularly Medicare (no coverage for hearing aids), and how the elderly make poor decisions for their own treatment, due to lack of information, cost, and appearance. Our mission is to change this through advocacy, research, education, civic action and common-sense advice on the latest technology for better hearing, how to find helpful cell phone apps, hearing aid buying strategy and tips. Help us continue this mission by donating.

To continue this work, we need about $5,000 for legal fees to incorporate, register trademarks, and obtain 501(c)3 charity status from the IRS so people can donate to our advocacy and get a tax deduction. We have never charged a fee to give these presentations, and we hope to continue that practice. But we do incur costs to develop and deliver them, such as handouts printing, maintaining a website, postage, travel, supplies, computer costs, etc.

We give these presentations at 55+ communities, senior residences and centers, libraries, and civic and religious groups. In 2024, we gave 19 such free presentations, totaling about 300 people and generating petitions from about 150 people to the U.S. Congress to make Medicare pay for hearing aids.

I have hearing loss myself, and even though I wear hearing aids, which help a lot in one-to-one conversations, I struggle to understand speech in public places, due to background noise, nearby talking, and reverberation. This happens when I am eating in a crowded restaurant, attending church, a movie or a concert. In these presentations, we give advice on coping in these situations.

Won't you help us continue these presentations to seniors to assist them with their hearing loss challenges by donating? Any amount, no matter how small, can help. Thank you for listening and helping with hearing.

More info is available at our website TheTimeToHearIsHere.org