Project Proposal: Funeral Services for the Uninsured Families

There is a complex system through both public and private sources under which there is the provision of healthcare services in the United States. The Medicare mostly covers individuals of 65years and older while those below that age are covered through insurance provided their employer (Kaiser Family Foundation 2016). Being uninsured is a big problem in today's world. Reports by the Federal government shows there in an approximate 46 million Americans that are not insured and almost 20% of these numbers are children. There are approximately 76% of United States citizens living from paycheck to paycheck, and there 25% are living below the poverty line (Kaiser Family Foundation 2016). This means many families have a problem paying for funeral services in the case a family member dies unexpectedly. This means there is the need to devise low-cost funeral alternatives for the uninsured. The essay provides a proposal to ensure there is the provision of funeral services for the uninsured citizens.

The uninsured and mostly unable to pay for the funeral services. The project will aim to suggest ways that can be utilized to ensure the uninsured are helped with funeral services. The project will have specific goals. First, the project will discuss how funeral services can help the uninsured with funeral plans. The project will aim at aiding the uninsured families with funeral plans when a family member dies. Secondly, the project goal will entail ways funeral arrangements will be made for the uninsured families. It is hard for the uninsured to afford funeral arrangements to the honor the deceased family member. The third project goal will look at the development of new practices that will help the uninsured families with funeral services. Helping one uninsured family is not a sustainable solution. The project will look to develop new practices that help in maintaining responsiveness to the needs of the uninsured clients.

There are also project objectives which detail how the project goals will be potentially achieved (Project Management Institute, n.a). The first objective will entail looking for ways the stakeholders at the local and state level can facilitate appropriate funerals plans for the uninsured families. The second objective of this project will be to make appropriate plans to correct funds necessary to effect the funeral services. The funeral arrangements will require funds, and this needs the collaboration of the relevant stakeholders. For instance, there are services such as dressing the body, grave site preparation or crematorium schedules. This means funds will need to be availed to make this possible. The third objective entails educating people on new cheaper funeral services. This will be critical in helping the uninsured bury their dead loved ones. For examples the use of cremation as a cheaper option and use of websites in facilitating the preparation of funeral arrangements.

For this project, the customers are low-income and uninsured families. Low-income and uninsured families have limited financial resources and often find it hard or impossible to afford funeral services. These are the major clients in this project. Concerning the problem of low-income and uninsured families finding it hard to pay for funeral services, there are stakeholders whose inputs may help in precipitating this problem. One of the stakeholders is the federal government who can help through the provision of federal benefits. Another stakeholder is the local government. In some states, there is evidence of the local government providing funeral services assistance for those unable to pay. This can be done through the provision of local government benefits. Other stakeholders include labor unions and fraternal organizations that may be willing to help in the provision of the funeral services. Churches and charitable organizations will also play a big part in assisting the payment of the funeral services. Lastly, there are the funeral home services who would be willing to offer low-cost funeral services for low-income and uninsured families.

Milestones and deliverables are important for any project. Deliverables are the actual outcomes of the project while milestones mark the accomplishment of objectives defined in the project (Investopedia Staff 2017). In this, the project deliverable is the provision of funeral services to low-income and uninsured families. It means that at the end of the project, it would be possible to offer funeral services to uninsured families. The milestones in this project entail being able to schedule meeting with the stakeholders to discuss how the funeral services can be delivered for these clients. The second milestone is being able to convince the stakeholders that this is a worthy project and their support is essential. The third milestone is to ensure the funds and resources that will be collected can be managed to ensure there are quality funeral services for uninsured families when their family member dies.

For the successful completion of this project, there are three main tasks. They include setting preliminary meetings with stakeholders, setting a second meeting to convince the stakeholders to offers their resources and the final tasks in the management of these resources. The first major task will be from August 21st to August 25th. The second meeting which involves a meeting to convince the stakeholders to commit to this project will be from September 1st to 4th. Upon the completion of these two tasks, the management of these resources for the provision of quality funeral services will be from September 15th to 20th.

In this project, there is the need for both monetary and non-monetary resources. A budget of $25,000 will be required. $12,000 will be the start-up expenses to fund, and the rest with be start-up asset to fund. There will be the need for staff with the appropriate knowledge.

In this project, the greatest challenge is to convince the stakeholders why the uninsured families should be helped with funeral services. Health coverage is costly and which is not without controversy. In solving this challenge, we can send ambassadors who can talk to stakeholders to commit their resources.

References

Investopedia Staff, (2017). Project Management. Investopedia. Retrieved 16 August 2017, from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/project-management.asp

Kaiser Family Foundation (2016).The Uninsured: Access to Medical Care // ACEP. Acep.org. Retrieved 16 August 2017, from https://www.acep.org/News-Media-top-banner/The-Uninsured--Access-To-Medical-Care/

Project Management Institute. (n.a). what is Project Management | PMI. Pmi.org. Retrieved 16 August 2017, from https://www.pmi.org/about/learn-about-pmi/what-is-project-management