OBJECTIVES: The recent Institute of Medicine (IOM) workshop on “Hearing Loss and Healthy Aging” brought national attention to the broad health implications of untreated HL in older adults. The objective of this study is to explore the impact of HL on quality of life (QoL) on the US population, separate from the length of survival, using the 2000 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) and 2010 US Census data. METHODS: Utility weights and population modeling using data from subjects age 60-90 from the MEPS 2000 sample were used to estimate utility decrements (UD), which were then applied to the 2010 US census population to estimate annual QALYs lost from chronic conditions for the US population. RESULTS: Of the sample respondents 15.4% had mild (UD.034) and 1.1% had Moderate/Severe (UD.18) HL. Decrements due to joint pain 53% (UD.0643), hypertension 47.2% (UD.0292), diabetes 15.6% (UD.0577), angina 9.8% (UD.0352), asthma 7.9% (UD.0288), emphysema 4.5% (UD.1186), and age (UD.0033) were calculated. When decrements were applied to the population the QALY loss ranged from 821,918 for joint pain 16,614 for blindness. Contrary to HL’s low ranking in the Global Burden of Disease study, HL ranked 4th at 174,689 when survival is excluded and only older US patients are considered.  CONCLUSIONS: HL has a substantial impact on healthy aging which is not obvious when QoL decrements include the effects on survival, or when younger people are included in the estimates. It is important to disassociate the effects of survival and the effects of a utility decrement when discussing the burden of illness for populations for whom QoL may be more important than length of survival. The results raises important issues for health policy formation for the aging “Baby Boomer” generation, indicating that the current lack of Medicare coverage for hearing aids and related services should be reassessed.