Area(s) of Expertise: Medicaid; Medi-Cal; Substance Use Disorders; Mental Health: Essential Health Benefits; Health Reform; Medicaid in Territories

Héctor Hernández-Delgado is a Senior Attorney in the National Health Law Program’s Los Angeles office. Héctor’s policy work focuses on access to substance use disorders and mental health services for Medicaid beneficiaries.

In particular, Héctor engages in administrative and legislative advocacy, and provides technical assistance and training, on issues related to substance use disorder services as part of California’s Drug Medi-Cal and Drug Medi-Cal Organized Delivery System programs. In addition, his work extends to coverage of Essential Health Benefits in the Marketplace and health reform proposals to achieve universal health care coverage and their impact on low-income individuals. Héctor also leads NHeLP’s efforts to improve access to Medicaid services in the U.S. territories, rural areas, and Native American communities.

Before joining NHeLP, Héctor worked as a Human Rights Intern at the UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) in Geneva, and as a Legal Clerk at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in San José, Costa Rica, where his worked focused on the intersection between health and human rights.

Héctor received his B.S. in Biology from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, and his J.D. and a Certificate in Health Law from the University of Maryland School of Law. Héctor also possesses a Master of Public Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where he concentrated in Health Care Systems and Policy, and where he studied the inequalities of the health care system in his native Puerto Rico.

Héctor is an avid sports fan and enjoys attending baseball games at Dodger Stadium and at baseball parks across the country. He also considers himself a cinephile and maintains a collection of classic, noir, and neo-noir films.