Sue Ontiveros: Give ads for healthy life styles equal time

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If you watch TV, this is what you learn from the ads:

Insurance companies make big bucks off us, because there isn’t a major — or semi-major — one around that isn’t airing commercial after commercial on television.

The second relentless message: Take prescription drugs. Lots of them. (Here’s when we could use Nancy Reagan’s Say No To Drugs campaign.)

Someone else take on the insurance ads. I’m honked by drug commercials.

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We’re used to those for prescription meds that are supposed to combat heart disease, cholesterol, diabetes and sexual dysfunction. They’re touchy-feely pretty, seemingly offering the added promise that taking these drugs brings more time to walk along the beach. But new ads have cropped up, for conditions that impact smaller segments of the population. You’ve probably seen the one for Non-24. It is common in persons who are blind; they cannot distinguish between daylight and dark, making sleep at night difficult. In ads I’ve seen it never says the drug’s name.

(In case you’re wondering, there are televisions designed to give audio descriptions of what is happening for those with impaired vision. So yes, the blind can be exposed to this ad.)

There are 7.3 million persons over age 16 in the United States — a country of almost 319 million — who have a visual disability, according to 2013 figures from the National Federation of the Blind. A small percentage of Americans needs that unnamed drug, and surely they’d like it at an affordable cost. How can prices stay low if it’s the star of a national TV commercial campaign? That’s the same situation with any of these other glossy prescription drug TV commercials. They can’t do anything but drive up prices.

The members of the American Medical Association finally must have turned on their TVs because it appears they, too, have noticed the deluge of prescription drug ads. Earlier this month the AMA called for a ban on direct-to-consumer ads for prescription meds and medical devices. It, too, talked about the ads driving up prices, but also how the proliferation has people thinking their only alternative is to turn to prescribed meds when there are other steps one could take first.

That’s what I’m always yelling when most of these ads pop up. (No one likes watching TV with me.) Improving one’s diet, getting the body moving, sleeping better, quitting smoking and cutting down on booze are things that should be done before many people must resort to prescription drugs. A host of alternative remedies could be tried first to relieve medical conditions.

As good an idea as it is to get rid of TV ads for prescription meds, the AMA has a big battle in front of it. The networks make too much money off these ads; I predict huge opposition.

So here’s an alternative solution: You know how TV networks must give political candidates equal time? I suggest something along the lines of that when it comes to prescription med ads. For every commercial for a diabetes drugs, I want one showing how exercise helps keep one’s blood sugar even. Let’s have ads showing the value of eating well, getting rid of the stress in one’s life. Make them well-done ads, just as pretty as those prescription drug ads.

Something has to combat the onslaught of televised drug ads. Paying for my alternative is the sticky part.

Although from what we see on television, insurance companies seem flush with cash …

Email: sueontiveros.cst@gmail.com

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