The Infant Universal Healthcare Program - Paper Example

Introduction

For many years, lethal opioids & heroin epidemic that have affected most people in the United States especially pregnant women. Approximately 2500 to 4000 infants are born each year to mothers that are or were heroin addicts and are born with serious health complications (Center for Disease Control). Such complications include respiratory issues, epilepsy seizures, and deficient brain developments. The most affected states include Vermont, West Virginia, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. The CDC also reports that between 450 to 700 infants die each year because they lack sufficient treatment needed to combat the side effects of heroin taken by their parents (HHS. Gov, 2018). Most are born in poor families that cannot afford Medicaid expansion benefits. These children require extended treatments to prevent further diseases that hinder their growth and development. The adoption of Infant Universal Healthcare Program would benefit children born to heroin-addicted or recovering mothers. The program would provide extensive and progressive treatments hence prevent hundreds of infant deaths and mitigate the child mortality rates. The future of America depends on child care quality because the country will require a workforce to drive the economy in the future. The CDC carried a study on the number of pregnant women using opioids, fentanyl, and heroin. The study revealed that addiction to these drugs caused the deaths of 2400 infants in 2016 (CDC, 2018). Addiction to opioid and heroin are closely linked with a range of damaging health consequences for both mothers and their children. These devastating outcomes include preterm birth, maternal death, stillbirth, and neonatal abstinence syndrome.

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A program is considered community building in nature if it improves among people in a regional area or with a common interest. In America, a community building program is an initiative that unites members to take a common action and come up with solutions to solve problems. The Infant Universal Healthcare Program is community building in nature because it seeks to improve the health of children particularly those born to heroin-addicted or recovering mothers. The program is aimed to help every child regardless of the family income. This program is mostly targeting the infants born from poor families where mothers do not know or ignore the need for quality child care. The government may offer the service at low or no cost to improve the number of infants who will receive the treatment and treat diseases that may hinder growth.

To earn the trust of and recruit community members as participants the team will advertise the benefits and objectives of the program to the community. The community may also conduct a pilot test and request some opioids addicts to take part and learn the benefits it will have on not only the mothers but also the babies. The group has to be careful about how they will explain the process to the victims to avoid any misunderstandings (Turner, 2018). The goal of the team should be to create awareness of the program and to make the people know its benefits.

The Infant Universal Healthcare Program will be very beneficial to the community because it will improve the health of children born from opioids addicts. Every child would undergo proper assessments for diseases such as respiratory issues, epilepsy seizures, and deficient brain developments. When these illnesses are detected at an early stage, they can be easily treated. This would, in turn, prevent death or permanent diseases. Another benefit is that both rich and poor families will be able to receive treatments in all public hospitals. This is a great opportunity for the poor who may not afford Medicaid cover (Turner, 2018). The program will also reduce infant mortality and hence maintain an adequate population to drive the economy in the future.

Marketing Plan

A Marketing Program section of the plan consists of the following strategies:

Product

The Infant Universal Care initiative is aimed at improving the health of babies born from to heroin addicted or recovering mothers.

The program will satisfy its customers' needs because it will improve the health of babies born from addicts and reduce their chances of complications.

Price

Prices are convenient for both rich and poor families.

The program will sponsor the families that cannot afford to pay half of the demanded costs.

Different pricing strategies such as the value-based pricing to attract members to register and enjoy services and added value services that come with every package.

For instance the low income families may pay only half the amount demanded per month.

The most addicted parents are given allowances.

Place

The members can access the service at any private or public hospitals across the country.

The service is accessed with ease and the process of treatment is not complicated.

Promotion

The program may be advertised in popular social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

Other forms of promotion that can be used to create awareness include media, public relations, and personal selling.

To reach the target market for the program, the marketing team should utilize uses marketing mix in the marketing plan (4ps). The 4ps of marketing include the product, price, place, and promotion (Armstrong, Kotler, Harker, & Brennan, 2015). The Infant Universal Care initiative will satisfy its customers' needs because it will improve the health of babies born from addicts and reduce their chances of complications. It will meet the specific needs of these infants who suffer the side effects of heroin. The marketing team adopts different pricing strategies, for example, the value-based pricing to attract consumers to subscribe and enjoy features and added value services that come with every method. For instance the low income families may pay only half the amount demanded per month. Ensure that the services are accessible in all public and private hospitals across the country. Most people are demoralized when they have to travel for long distance to access services (Westwood, 2016). The process of registration is free and simple. People are only requested to fill in few important personal details. The last one is promotion which is conducted through advertising. This marketing section uses popular websites that people visit to advertise their program.

The recruitment plan may include online registration. The best type of promotion mix is digital marketing through websites, social media such Twitter and Facebook and YouTube videos. It is clear that social media has taken over the traditional types of advertising and therefore more focused will be put on social media websites and create a web where clients can ask the customer support anything. Facebook is the most visited social website globally and the brand images and their benefits will be posted on daily basis so that clients can see and respond to them. Personal recruitment may be adopted in areas with low participation (Andrews, & Shimp, 2017).

Conclusion

In conclusion, the target population is to save the lives of children who die or develop serious complications as a result of heroin side effects. The motivation factors for the priority population include reducing the number on infant mortality and disability cases in America. The future of America depends on child care quality because the country will require workforce to drive the economy in future.

References

Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M., & Brennan, R. (2015). Marketing: an introduction. Pearson Education.Westwood, J. (2016). How to write a marketing plan. Kogan Page Publishers.

Andrews, J. C., & Shimp, T. A. (2017). Advertising, promotion, and other aspects of integrated marketing communications. Nelson Education.CDC (2018). Rate of Pregnant Women Addicted To Opioids Skyrocketed In 15 Years. Retrieved from https://dfw.cbslocal.com/2018/08/10/cdc-pregnant-women-addicted-opioids-15-years/

Turner, E. (2018). Drug Use During Pregnancy: The Impact of Maternal Drug Addiction on Infants.

HHS. Gov (2018). Heroin use. Retrieved from https://search.hhs.gov/search?q=heroin+use&site=hhsgov_only&entqr=3&ud=1&sort=date%3AD%3AL%3Ad1&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&lr=lang_en&client=HHS&proxystylesheet=HHS&filter=0