Laura Packard
American health care activist and political commentator
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Laura Packard (born 1976) is an American health care activist[1] and political commentator. She is the founder of Health Care Voices[2] and Voices of Health Care Action,[3] non-profit grassroots organizations for adults with serious medical conditions. Packard is executive director of the group Health Care Voter,[4] with actress Alyssa Milano, singer T-Boz, politicians Donna Edwards and Anton Gunn, activists Ady Barkan and Brad Woodhouse, and others as co-chairs.[5] She hosts a weekly call-in streaming show and podcast for Americans with health care and health insurance questions, Care Talk.[6]
Laura Packard | |
|---|---|
Packard in 2020 | |
| Born | 1976 (age 49–50) |
| Education | University of Michigan (BS, Computer Science) |
| Occupation | Health care activist |
| Known for | Health Care Voices, Voices of Health Care Action, Health Care Voter |
| Website | www |
Packard was a featured speaker at the 2020 Democratic National Convention with Joe Biden, sharing her personal health care story.[7][8]
A self-employed small business owner[9] in Nevada, she was diagnosed with stage-4 Hodgkin lymphoma in 2017.[10] Believing that the Affordable Care Act saved her life[11] and that without it she would be bankrupt or dead without the care she received through her insurance,[12] Packard became an outspoken critic of repeal attempts. Her sharp questioning led United States Senator Dean Heller to eject her from a public event,[13] and her criticism of President Donald Trump resulted in him blocking her on Twitter.[14] A 2018 lawsuit, Knight First Amendment Institute v. Trump, forced President Donald Trump to reinstate her access to his social media accounts, along with that of 40 others.[15]
Packard spoke on six national bus tours with progressive health care advocacy organization Protect Our Care in 2018,[16] 2019,[17] 2021,[18] 2022,[19] 2023,[20] and 2024,[21] and a national bus tour with advocacy organization Courage for America on the debt ceiling crisis in 2023.[22]
Moving to Colorado in 2019,[23] her political advocacy broadened to include challenges to United States Senator Cory Gardner’s community engagement, and she went on a statewide bus tour with “Cardboard Cory” to accentuate his purported inaccessibility.[24] She also challenged United States Representative Lauren Boebert's health care record.[25] and was blocked by Boebert on Twitter[26] in February 2022.
In 2018, Packard was noted for her outspoken opposition to the nomination of Justice Brett Kavanaugh.[27] She was included again in media coverage for her 2020 opposition to the nomination of Justice Amy Coney Barrett.[28]