Laura Packard | |
---|---|
Born | May 23, 1976 |
Education | University of Michigan (BS, Computer Science) |
Occupation | Health care activist |
Known for | Health Care Voices, Health Care Voter |
Website | healthcarevoices |
Laura Packard (born May 23, 1976) is an American health care activist [1] and political commentator. She is the founder of Health Care Voices, [2] a non-profit grassroots organization for adults with serious medical conditions. She is executive director of the group Health Care Voter, [3] with actress Alyssa Milano, singer T-Boz, politicians Donna Edwards and Anton Gunn, activists Ady Barkan and Brad Woodhouse, and others as co-chairs. [4] Packard is also executive director of Get America Covered, a group that promotes increased health coverage. [5] She hosts a weekly call-in television show for Americans with health care and health insurance questions on act.tv, Care Talk. [6]
Packard was a featured speaker at the 2020 Democratic National Convention with Joe Biden. [7] [8]
A self-employed small business owner, [9] 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] she 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 five national bus tours with progressive health care advocacy organization Protect Our Care in 2018, [16] 2019, [17] 2021 [18] , 2022 [19] , and 2023. [20] , and a national bus tour with advocacy organization Courage for America on the debt ceiling crisis in 2023. [21]
Moving to Denver, Colorado in 2019, 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. [22] She also challenged United States Representative Lauren Boebert's health care record. [23] and was blocked by Boebert on Twitter [24] in February 2022.
In 2018, Packard was noted for her outspoken opposition to the nomination of Justice Brett Kavanaugh. [25] She was included again in media coverage for her 2020 opposition to the nomination of Justice Amy Coney Barrett. [26]
Marian Elaine "Mimi" Walters is an American businesswoman and politician. A Republican, she served from 2015 to 2019 as the U.S. representative for California's 45th congressional district.
The Little Sisters of the Poor is a Roman Catholic religious institute for women. It was founded by Jeanne Jugan. Having felt the need to care for the many impoverished elderly who lined the streets of French towns and cities, Jugan established the congregation to care for the elderly in 1839.
Families USA is a nonprofit, nonpartisan consumer health advocacy and policy organization.
Scott Randall Tipton is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for Colorado's 3rd congressional district from 2011 to 2021. A Republican, he was previously a member of the Colorado House of Representatives from 2009 to 2011. Tipton was first elected to the House in November 2010 when he defeated three-term Democratic incumbent John Salazar, and he was re-elected four times. In 2020, he lost renomination to Republican primary challenger Lauren Boebert in what was considered a major upset.
Dean Arthur Heller is an American businessman and politician who served as a United States senator representing Nevada from 2011 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 15th secretary of state of Nevada from 1995 to 2007 and U.S. representative for Nevada's 2nd congressional district from 2007 to 2011. He was appointed to the U.S. Senate by Governor Brian Sandoval and elected to a full term in the 2012 election. Heller unsuccessfully ran for a second term in 2018, losing to Democrat Jacky Rosen. He was an unsuccessful candidate for governor of Nevada in 2022.
William Morgan Cassidy is an American physician and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Louisiana, a seat he has held since 2015. A member of the Republican Party, he served in the Louisiana State Senate from 2006 to 2009 and in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2009 to 2015.
ProgressNow, previously the Rocky Mountain Progressive Network, is a progressive 501(c)(4) advocacy organization in the United States. Founded in 2003, ProgressNow bills itself as a network of state based communications hubs which act as a marketing department for progressive ideas.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and colloquially known as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. Together with the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 amendment, it represents the U.S. healthcare system's most significant regulatory overhaul and expansion of coverage since the enactment of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965.
Cory Scott Gardner is an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from Colorado from 2015 to 2021. A Republican, he was the U.S. representative for Colorado's 4th congressional district from 2011 to 2015 and a member of the Colorado House of Representatives from 2005 to 2011.
Martha Kehres Roby is an American lawyer and politician who served as the U.S. representative for Alabama's 2nd congressional district from 2011 to 2021. A member of the Republican Party, she defeated the incumbent Democratic U.S. Representative Bobby Bright in 2010. That year, Roby and Terri Sewell became the first women elected to Congress from Alabama in regular elections. On July 26, 2019, Roby announced she would retire from Congress at the end of her fifth term, which ended in 2021.
Heritage Action for America, more commonly known simply as Heritage Action, is a conservative policy advocacy organization founded in 2010. Heritage Action, which has affiliates throughout the United States, is a sister organization of the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation. Heritage Action has been called a "powerhouse in a new generation of conservative groups" and "perhaps now the most influential lobby group among Congressional Republicans." Executive director Jessica Anderson has led the organization since April 2020.
Nuns on the Bus is a Catholic advocacy group in the United States. Their name comes from the fact that they tour the country on a bus.
Simone Campbell, SSS, is an American Catholic religious sister, lawyer, lobbyist and executive director of NETWORK. She belongs to the Sisters of Social Service. She is known as an outspoken advocate for social justice.
The 2020 United States Senate election in Colorado was held on November 3, 2020, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Colorado, concurrently with the 2020 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections to the United States Senate, elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.
Seema Verma is a General Manager and Senior Vice President at Oracle Corporation. She is the former administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in the Donald Trump administration. During her tenure, she was involved in efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, as well as reduce Medicaid benefits and increase restrictions on Medicaid. She was embroiled in ethics and legal controversies related to her use of taxpayer money while in office.
The following is a list of efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which had been enacted by the 111th United States Congress on March 23, 2010.
The following is a list of plans which were considered to replace the Affordable Care Act during the Donald Trump administration. The plans were considered after the Republican Party gained a federal government trifecta in 2016. "Repeal and replace" has been a Republican slogan since March 2010 when the ACA was signed into law and had been adopted by former President Donald Trump.
The 2020 United States House of Representatives elections in Colorado was held on November 3, 2020, to elect the seven U.S. representatives from the state of Colorado, one from each of the state's seven congressional districts. The elections coincided with the 2020 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections to the House of Representatives, elections to the United States Senate and various state and local elections.
California v. Texas, 593 U.S. ___ (2021), was a United States Supreme Court case that dealt with the constitutionality of the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA), colloquially known as Obamacare. It was the third such challenge to the ACA seen by the Supreme Court since its enactment. The case in California followed after the enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 and the change to the tax penalty amount for Americans without required insurance that reduced the "individual mandate" to zero, effective for months after December 31, 2018. The District Court of the Northern District of Texas concluded that this individual mandate was a critical provision of the ACA and that, with a penalty amount equal to zero, some or all of the ACA was potentially unconstitutional as an improper use of Congress's taxation powers.
Lauren Opal Boebert is an American politician, businesswoman, and gun rights activist serving as the U.S. representative for Colorado's 3rd congressional district since 2021. From 2013 to 2022, she owned Shooters Grill, a restaurant in Rifle, Colorado, where staff members were encouraged to carry firearms openly.