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]
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 SenatorDean 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 SenatorCory 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 RepresentativeLauren 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 JusticeBrett Kavanaugh.[25] She was included again in media coverage for her 2020 opposition to the nomination of JusticeAmy Coney Barrett.[26]
