The Health Consumer Center (HCC) protects and promotes the health care rights of children, persons with disabilities, and low-income families and older adults in San Mateo County. Our work insures that all members of our community can access the health coverage and services they need. We work on Medi-Cal, Medicare, Healthy Families, Healthy Kids, county-based indigent coverage, charity care, private managed care, and the problems of the uninsured.

For many individuals and families, navigating complicated local, state, and federal health programs can be extremely frustrating, intimidating and discouraging. The HCC's advocacy helps individuals, community-based organizations, and other advocates understand and utilize these programs so vulnerable populations can receive appropriate services and avoid medical debt. We also identify systemic barriers to eligibility and enrollment and the timely receipt of health care services, and develop policy solutions to eliminate those barriers.

To develop effective programs and promote sound policy solutions, we use the following methods:

• Individual Advocacy for Vulnerable Populations: resolves individual problems and informs broad policy development on health care issues;
• Coalition Building: facilitates information sharing and builds support for advocacy efforts;
• Technical Assistance and Training: builds expertise and an accurate understanding of legal rights within our community;
• Administrative Advocacy: promotes change in local and state agency policies and program administration;
• Litigation: achieves program and policy improvements through selective impact litigation; and
• Policy Development: uses extensive research and analysis of public health programs, underlying statutes, regulations, and program rules to inform local and state policy.

The Health Consumer Center is known throughout San Mateo County and within California for our expertise on health care programs. That expertise is continously developed through years of experience with clients, community-based organizations, and state and local agency staff. The HCC understands the broad range of health programs that exist and the agencies that run them, and has worked hard to build the relationships of trust and respect with local and state policymakers necessary for us to achieve systems change.

The HCC has a long history of creating innovative, collaborative projects to address health care needs as broadly as possible. For information about the HCC's medical-legal collaborative, the Peninsula Family Advocacy Program, visit www.peninsulafap.org.

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