Spanish at home, English in the mailbox
Pacoima's ZIP code, 91331, is home to 12,598 people age 65 or older, 12.9 percent of the 97,608 who live there. Across the ZIP code, 88.3 percent of people are Latino, 77.5 percent speak Spanish at home, and 43.2 percent were born outside the United States. Those figures are 2020 to 2024 American Community Survey estimates. Even here, most Medicare websites, plan documents and phone lines start in English. When a letter from Medicare or from your plan shows up and you are not sure what it means, set it aside for Lara. She will read it with you in Spanish, tell you what it changes, if anything, and help you fill out any form that has to go back.
Providence Holy Cross, Pacifica or Kaiser: the plan decides
Three hospitals sit around Pacoima, each in a different neighborhood. Providence Holy Cross Medical Center, at 15031 Rinaldi Street in Mission Hills, has 330 beds and a Level II trauma center. Pacifica Hospital of the Valley, a 231 bed acute care hospital, is at 9449 San Fernando Road in Sun Valley. Kaiser Permanente Panorama City Medical Center has 218 beds. Kaiser is the simple case. Its doctors are generally available only through Kaiser's own Medicare plans, so keeping a Kaiser doctor means choosing one of them. Providence Holy Cross and Pacifica are in some plans and not in others, and networks change every year. So Lara starts with names. Give her every doctor you see, plus your pharmacy and hospital, and she checks each one in the current directory of every plan you are weighing.
The clinic on Van Nuys and the senior center on Glenoaks
Many Pacoima families get their everyday care at the Northeast Valley Health Corporation clinic at 12756 Van Nuys Blvd, which accepts Medicare and Medi-Cal. If you carry both of those cards, show Lara both. Having both can open up plans built for people with Medicare and Medi-Cal, and she will find out which of those you qualify for. The Alicia Broadous-Duncan Multipurpose Senior Center at 11300 Glenoaks Blvd serves meals, runs day trips and offers case management, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. It can help a parent with needs that go beyond a health plan. Neighbors also gather at the Ritchie Valens Recreation Center at 10736 Laurel Canyon Blvd, named for the Pacoima teenager who took rock and roll in Spanish to the whole country. Lara does not have an office in Pacoima. She comes to your house, and if you would rather sit across a desk, the agency's Valley Village office is nearby, at 12520 Magnolia Blvd Suite 302.
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 Pacoima
Goulson Insurance Services Inc. is an independent insurance agency, and our agents work as licensed brokers for Pacoima 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.
Beyond the plan comparison
Lara also helps with life insurance, long term care, disability and dental coverage, each one in its own conversation, apart from your Medicare review. After you enroll, bring Lara any bill that looks wrong or any letter saying a claim was denied. She will phone the doctor's office or the insurance company together with you.
Text Lara in Spanish or English at (818) 472-5484, or call if you would rather talk.
You reach Lara directly · English, Español, עברית · Licensed in 12 states · 5.0 on Google · No cost to you
Nearby Neighborhoods
We serve the whole San Fernando Valley and greater Los Angeles. These are the neighborhood pages closest to this one.