Lancaster's three ZIP codes are not alike
Lancaster's three ZIP codes are home to 194,251 people, and 24,842 of them are 65 or older. That is 12.8 percent. For Los Angeles County as a whole, the share is 15.2 percent. On the west side, 9,830 people in 93536 are 65 or older, or 13.4 percent, and the median age is 36.8. On the east side, in 93535, the count is 9,055, or 11.4 percent, with a median age of 31.9. In the center of the city, 93534, it is 5,957, or 14.4 percent, with a median age of 35.6. In 93536 the median household income is $106,903, and 72.1 percent of occupied homes are owner occupied. In 93535 those figures are $70,360 and 66.4 percent. In 93534 they are $61,866 and 37.3 percent, so most households in the center rent. Across the three ZIP codes, 61.4 percent of occupied homes are owner occupied, compared with 45.9 percent countywide. Among people 5 and older, 37.7 percent speak Spanish at home in 93535, 28.3 percent in 93534 and 20.1 percent in 93536. The share who speak only English is 59.0, 67.9 and 73.3 percent, in the same order. If Spanish is the language at home, Lara can do the whole review in Spanish. These are 2020 to 2024 American Community Survey figures. Each 65 and older count is a sum of the survey's age brackets, not an estimate built from a percentage.
Antelope Valley Hospital, Palmdale Regional and the drive to Kaiser
Antelope Valley Hospital is at 1600 W Ave J, in 93534. The state licenses it for 390 beds, and it has an emergency department. To the south, Palmdale Regional Medical Center is at 38600 Medical Center Drive and is licensed for 184 beds. The bed counts come from California's state licensing records, which we read in September 2026. There is no Kaiser hospital in the Antelope Valley. The nearest two are down the 14: Kaiser Foundation Hospital Panorama City at 13652 Cantara St, licensed for 218 beds, and Kaiser Foundation Hospital Woodland Hills at 5601 De Soto Ave, licensed for 274. Both are for people on a Kaiser plan. If you are thinking about joining Kaiser or leaving it, settle that early. Moving between Kaiser and any other plan means changing all of your doctors at once. Antelope Valley Hospital and Palmdale Regional belong to separate systems, and Kaiser is a third. On any Medicare Advantage plan other than Kaiser's, the medical group the plan works through decides which hospital admits you. The group, more than the insurer, sets your network, so two plans sold under the same company's name can lead to different doctors. Those group contracts are renegotiated year to year. Before you enroll, Lara opens each plan's current directory and searches for Antelope Valley Hospital or Palmdale Regional, whichever you would use, along with your doctors and your pharmacy. She runs the search again each fall, once plans post their changes.
The first question depends on your side of town
In 93534, the center of Lancaster, most households rent and the median household income is $61,866. There, the first thing Lara looks at is whether you qualify for help paying your costs. Plans come second. Extra Help brings down what your Part D prescriptions cost if your income and resources are under its limits. If you have both Medicare and Medi-Cal, you can be eligible for a Dual Eligible Special Needs Plan. A ZIP code median does not decide either one. What counts is your own income and assets, or yours and your spouse's. The check takes a few minutes, and it is worth doing on the east side too, where the median household income is $70,360. On the west side, in 93536, which includes Quartz Hill, the median household income is $106,903. Higher earners pay a surcharge on their Part B and Part D premiums, based on the income on their tax return from two years before. If your income has dropped since then because of a life changing event such as retirement, Form SSA-44 is how you ask for a correction. More than seven in ten households on the west side own their home. If you own yours, Lara can talk with you about long term care coverage and about how Medi-Cal's rules treat a house. She does that in a separate conversation, never as part of your Medicare review.
Medicare Advantage across Los Angeles County in 2027
About 57 percent of Los Angeles County's 1.7 million Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled in Medicare Advantage or another Medicare health plan (CMS, May 2026). The county has 70 Medicare Advantage plans open to general enrollment in 2027, plus 54 Special Needs Plans, and 60 of the 70 charge a $0 monthly plan premium (CMS 2027 Landscape file). What varies far more is the out of pocket maximum, the most you pay in a year for covered care in network: our analysis of the same file puts the average at $2,232 and the median at $1,500, with a range from $199 to $9,850.
Lara is a licensed insurance agent. Insurance companies pay her when you enroll, so her help costs you nothing and your premium is the same with or without her.
How Lara is paidIndependent Medicare help in Lancaster
Goulson Insurance Services Inc. is an independent insurance agency, and our agents work as licensed brokers for Lancaster families. No single insurance company employs us or decides what we recommend, so the comparison starts with your doctors, your prescriptions and your budget. We put Medicare Advantage, Medicare Supplement and Part D plans from several carriers side by side, and you enroll only if one fits. The agency holds CA license 6020069, Lara Goulson holds CA license 0E69969, and we work in English, Spanish and Hebrew.
What Lara handles in Lancaster
Lara compares Medicare Advantage, Medicare Supplement and Part D plans anywhere in Lancaster. She also sells life insurance, long term care and final expense policies, and she goes over those at a separate appointment from your Medicare review. If a bill comes back wrong after you enroll, or the plan denies a claim, she gets on the phone with you to sort it out. She will also join you on a call to a doctor's office.
Call or text (818) 472-5484, and Lara can meet you at home in Lancaster.
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Nearby Neighborhoods
We serve the whole San Fernando Valley and greater Los Angeles. These are the neighborhood pages closest to this one.