Parents Are Furious, Kids Are Waiting, and Newsom's Answer Cost $23 Million
Imagine paying $76,000 for something you can buy at a store for $2,000.
Welcome to Gavin Newsom's California.
For nearly five years, California has been running a state program called the Hearing Aid Coverage for Children Program, or HACCP.
The idea sounds fine on paper. Kids who don't have Medi-Cal or private insurance coverage can get help getting hearing aids.
The reality? It's a disaster.
According to a state Department of Health Care Services report delivered last month to a California Senate budget committee, the program has spent nearly $23 million since 2021 and has around 300 active enrolled kids to show for it.
That's roughly $76,000 per child.
Here's the kicker. Even the most expensive pediatric hearing aids on the market cost about $6,000. So where did the rest of the money go?
Mostly to administrative and overhead costs. Not to the kids.
How Did We Get Here?
This didn't have to happen.
In 2023, the California Legislature passed SB 635, the Let California Kids Hear Act, with unanimous support. It would have simply required private insurance companies to cover hearing aids for children. Simple. Clean. Already working in 35 other states.
Newsom vetoed it. He said the state program was the better solution.
As of 2026, 35 states require hearing aid coverage for children through private insurance markets, state exchanges, or both. California isn't one of them. Instead, it has a government program that cost $23 million and helped 300 kids.
Advocates estimate up to 20,000 California kids need hearing aids but don't have coverage. That gap isn't just inconvenient. Delays in getting hearing aids can cause real problems with speech development, learning, and social skills.
These aren't small stakes.
Parents and Lawmakers Are Fed Up
Michelle Marciniak, founder of Let California Kids Hear, told the New York Post that the governor's office has dropped the ball. Parents who've tried to navigate the program have called it a “nightmare.” Lawmakers who supported the insurance mandate bill are pushing hard for fixes in the current state budget.
The frustration makes sense. This was supposed to be the easier path. Newsom argued the state-run program would be more flexible and reach more kids. Five years later, the numbers tell a completely different story.
Think about it this way. If you hired a contractor to fix your roof and he spent $23,000 but only patched a few shingles, you'd fire him. California taxpayers don't have that option.
This Fits a Pattern
California has a long history of spending enormous sums and producing underwhelming results. There's the $24 billion in homeless spending with little to show for it. There's the high-speed rail project currently budgeted at over $200 billion that still hasn't connected a single major city. Now add a hearing aid program that costs $76,000 per child.
It's not that California politicians don't care about kids. They'll tell you all day long that they do. The problem is that caring and competence aren't the same thing.
A simple insurance mandate, the kind that 35 other states passed without drama, would have cost taxpayers nothing and helped tens of thousands of kids. Instead, California built a bureaucracy, fed it tens of millions of dollars, and delivered almost nothing.
Nevada's legislature has looked at similar hearing aid mandates in recent sessions. Stories like this are a good reminder of why keeping government out of the middle of these transactions usually produces better results for the people who actually need help.
When the government becomes the solution, the people who need help most are usually last in line.
The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Nevada News & Views. Digital technology was used in the research, writing, and production of this article. Please verify information and consult additional sources as needed.
