Humana's low-cost Medicare drug plan is a way to lure seniors into its Essay

Humana's low-cost Medicare drug plan is a way to lure seniors into its managed care - Essay Example Humana Inc. with its new plan targets the seniors market, including low-income segment. The crux of the new strategy is the extremely low pricing for the drug-only policies. Proposed rates which are almost twice below the average, coupled with marketing agreement with the Wal-Mart stores, government subsidies and legislative support, should attract millions of new senior customers. This opportunity seems even more attractive given the projected decline in the market growth and increasing competition. Of course, simply lowering all the rates will decrease significantly company's margins. Therefore, the next stage of the marketing plan considers deploying the enroll-and-migrate strategy'' and putting emphasize on switching the attention of the newly acquired drug-only programs customers to the managed care programs. Sales personnel's effort would be directed at the promotion of these programs, which have higher rates and are much more lucrative for the Humana Inc. The author gives a brief dispassionate description of the Humana's management plans and provides the readers with corresponding figures where appropriate. However, the article contains several hints of the attitude expressed towards the plan. The heading contains the word "hook" with regard to the new low-price policy and the text develops the idea further. The means and ends of the upcoming measures are summarized in two brief sentences: â€Å"Their idea: offer dirt-cheap drug plans to grab millions of seniors. Then use the benefit as a stepping stone to a potentially richer market†. Undoubtedly, the article may attract some of the customers by informing them about the low-priced offering they might find appealing.