MADISON, Wis. -- Families of children with hearing impairments lobbied lawmakers at the state Capitol Wednesday to pass a bill requiring insurance companies to cover hearing aids and cochlear implants for children with hearing loss.

VIDEO: Watch The Report

Families spoke to a joint hearing of Senate and Assembly committees on insurance and urged lawmakers to pass an insurance mandate.

This is the second bill dealing with an insurance mandate to get attention at the Capitol lately. The first dealt with coverage of autism treatment for children.

Families argue that both hearing loss and autism need coverage for children to be treated appropriately and fairly, but some are concerned that it might drive up the price of health care.

Tiffany Wilkie and her family came to the Capitol Wednesday because her son Manny was born with a birth defect, leaving him with no ears and closed-off ear canals. The Wilkies found Manny needed bone-conduction hearing aids not covered by insurance.

"We said, 'OK, let's order it. It's probably a couple hundred dollars.' I had no idea," said Wilkie. "And the audiologist said, 'Well, yours is pretty rare; it's actually $5,000.' So we had 30 days to come up with $5,000 and we put it on our credit card."

The stories are familiar to many families lobbying lawmakers to require insurance coverage of hearing aids and cochlear implants. But insurance companies said the mandates could mean that people would need to pay more for coverage.

"The objective of legislation like this is understandably to promote access to a particular benefit. But one of the concerns is if the cost of coverage increases because of the mandated benefit, it means it may push somebody out of coverage altogether," said Phil Dougherty, with the Wisconsin Association of Health Plans.

The group said the prices could be tough to meet for small businesses, which make up part of the 30 percent of commercially insured policies that would be subject to the mandate.

But the Wilkies said the expense means the world to them.

"It may affect taxpayers a dollar or two a year in insurance premiums, but the reality is it could save them $1 million per child for a lifetime in reduced costs," said Wilkie.

About 200 children are estimated to be born hearing impaired every year in Wisconsin, WISC-TV reported.

The Office of the State Commissioner of Insurance is still working on an impact statement of the legislation. A similar bill was proposed last year and the estimated impact was 8 cents per insurance participant per month. The Association of Health Plans said its members estimate the cost to be greater than that, but it doesn't have a total.

Gov. Jim Doyle said he supports insuring cochlear implants as well as autism funding. He said Wisconsin families needing insurance should be able to get it.

"It is intended to be a way that insurance companies don't decide, 'You can have this, or you can have that.' Insurance is intended to be a way that we share in case we have a bad injury, physical condition or illness we need help for," Doyle said.