Laura Packard | |
|---|---|
 Packard in 2020 | |
| 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 |
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]
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]