• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, October 26, 2016

Health-care insurers need to start TV advertising with some frank talk, now that health care costs are going higher -- much higher. Can they have some fun with that creative -- or perhaps target some new consumers?

Estimates are monthly health-care premiums under Obamacare are going up on average 22% -- with some states, such as Arizona, estimated to be doubled -- a more than 100% rise.

Mind you, non-Obamacare health-care premiums are rising double-digit percentages as well -- in some cases over 30%. Who benefits from these monetary rises? Health insurers, hospitals, doctors, health-care professionals, and, of course, pharmaceutical companies.

Some blame too few young consumers signing on for health care -- and many more sick people -- for the cost rises. Health-care insurers rather not pay for sick people -- and have abandoned efforts to sell packages in some states.

The math formula for some is then easy to figure out: Healthier people are footing the bill for the sick.

So in new TV advertising for health-care plans, companies would do well to explain this. Show out-of-shape, in poor health people one one side -- and healthier people on the other. Have the viewer decide what to do -- morally, financially and physically speaking.

To get Obamacare going -- the Affordable Care Act -- some $1 billion in advertising was planned to get people to sign on. Around 12 million have signed on; but estimates were hoping that 20 million would have been signed on by now.

Health-care insurers spent some $183.8 million in TV commercials over the past year, October to October, according to iSpot.tv. But there is also a hefty amount local/national spot TV revenue spent in specific markets. This is the time of year health-care insurers ramp up their efforts to market their supplemental Medicare advertising for the coming year.

Is there another opportunity here -- those getting stuck in the middle? That is, people who make too much money to be eligible for subsidies -- or Obamacare -- who are forced to pay for continued expensive health-care packages. That’s a new target audience.

So, go ahead you top-notch creative advertising types. Find a way to entice me with your healthy ideas. Go for a run?