Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephanie Fajuri
Hi Stephanie, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I’m originally from the suburbs outside of Detroit, and grew up in a comfortable multi-cultural/multi-ethnic household. My dad, who immigrated to the US from Chile with his family when he was 13, was a lawyer, and my mom, who grew up in Detroit and surrounded by her large Polish-American family in Pennsylvania, had a social work background and worked for the State of Michigan helping children and families. Both of my parents instilled a sense of civic duty in me, and my mom even took me out to canvass for Al Gore in Detroit when I was in high school Because of this, I knew from a young age (once I decided that the career of “back-up singer” wasn’t going to pan out) that I wanted to do something with my life that would a) help people, and b) take me interesting places. I studied History at the University of Michigan, after which I spent a year teaching English in Shanghai, China, before returning to the United States for law school. In law school at Chicago-Kent College of Law, I developed a strong interest in disability law, civil rights, and health law, in some part due to the fact that disability is the one protected class that anyone could join at any time.
After passing the New York bar exam, I decided to instead move to Los Angeles, which has been my home since March 2011. My desire to work to educate people about their legal rights and their health care lead me to a program called the Cancer Legal Resource Center, which is a program of the Disability Rights Legal Center. I passed the California Bar Exam and remained there for eight years, ultimately becoming the program director and getting to travel all over the country speaking at conferences, writing educational fact sheets, and participating in coalitions to advance the legal rights of people affected by a cancer diagnosis. While at CLRC, I completed a policy fellowship with the Women’s Foundation of California, and became a legislative ambassador with the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.
In 2019, I decided I wanted to focus my career more specifically on access to health care, which lead me to the Center for Health Care Rights, an organization that provides free Medicare and Medi-Cal counseling to Los Angeles County residents. I firmly believe that my experience teaching English as a Second Language to 4th graders prepared me for a career explaining health insurance to diverse audiences, because for many people, “insurance” really is a second language!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It definitely has not been a smooth road, for a number of reasons. On a personal level, finding a job out of law school in the wake of the financial crisis was a challenge, and doing so in a new city where I had basically zero professional contacts was even harder. I ended up initially getting hired for a non-attorney role at Disability Rights Legal Center largely based on my persistence; I’d applied for 3 other positions there in the previous year by the time they finally offered me a role! And while I followed a more traditional path moving over to Center for Health Care Rights, I started here 6 months before COVID-19 hit, which was right as I was finishing my very intensive training, and after which we went through a leadership transition. It was a lot to digest!
The programs I’ve worked for have also faced major challenges; funding at nonprofit agencies, even when it is from government contracts, can be challenging and at times unstable (especially when there are new administrations taking over or budget cuts at the state or federal level). It can also be a major challenge to promote these free programs, especially when, in the case of Center for Health Care Rights, we are up against the very large marketing budgets of the Medicare Advantage plans. I would love to stop hearing “I wish I’d known about your services when I joined Medicare!” Our agency has been around for 40 years and somehow we are still the best kept secret in LA County.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Center for Health Care Rights?
Center for Health Care Rights is a nonprofit organization that runs the Health Insurance Counseling and Advocacy Program (HICAP) for the city and county of Los Angeles. We provide free Medicare education, counseling, and advocacy to LA County residents, and are part of a larger HICAP network (all of California) and State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) nationwide.
We are known for a few specific things: one-on-one Medicare counseling appointments, which we provide over the phone through our helpline, or in person at a variety of senior centers and other locations throughout Los Angeles County. We also conduct educational workshops in the community, and attend outreach events to promote our services, including things like health fairs, senior expos, and we even host a booth at the LA County fair. One of the things that I think is the most important to know about our services is that they are all free, and they are completely unbiased. We do not sell insurance or work with any health insurance companies or brokers, which means that people can trust that we don’t have any financial incentive to push people in one direction or another when it comes to their health care options. I am proud of the fact that most of our staff are bilingual (we have staff who speak Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Japanese) and that we can actually provide assistance in over 250 languages through the use of a language line.
Nearly 2/3 of our clients also have low income, but we provide services to people of all economic backgrounds; we know that Medicare is complicated enough on its own, and since so many of our clients also have Medi-Cal due to their low income, we strive to provide comprehensive information and assistance to people who have questions about or problems with their dual coverage. Finally, it’s also important to note that our HICAP counselors (including approximately 15 volunteer counselors!) go through extensive training, background checks, and get officially registered with the State of California before they can provide these services to the public. We want to be LA County’s most trusted resource for Medicare information.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
At work, we rely a lot on the incredible resources that Justice in Aging puts together as they pertain to Medicare and older adults.
The New York Times Cooking app (and cooking/baking recipes from it) definitely helps me do my best in life; since the work we do at Center for Health Care Rights can be emotionally challenging (we rarely hear from people who are having fun with their health insurance coverage!), I try to read books that are largely unrelated to my work (and track them all in Goodreads, another favorite app). I’ll also give a plug for my favorite podcast, Game of Roses, which is for fans of the Bachelor/Bachelorette franchise. I started watching/listening during the pandemic and as they say on the podcast, I’m now deep “in the pit.”
Pricing:
- free!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.healthcarerights.org
- Instagram: @healthcarerightsla
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/healthcarerightsla
