Laura Packard (born 1976) is an American health care activist and political commentator. She is the founder of Health Care Voices and Voices of Health Care Action, non-profit grassroots organizations for adults with serious medical conditions. Packard is executive director of the group Health Care Voter, with actress

Alyssa Milano Alyssa Jayne Milano ( ; born December 19, 1972) is an American actress and activist. She has played Samantha Micelli in '' Who's the Boss?'' (1984–1992), Jennifer Mancini in '' Melrose Place'' (1997–1998), Phoebe Halliwell in '' Charmed'' ...

, singer

T-Boz Tionne Tenese Watkins (born April 26, 1970), also known by her stage name T-Boz, is an American singer. Watkins rose to fame in the early 1990s as a member of the girl-group TLC. She has won four Grammy Awards for her work with TLC. Early life ...

, politicians

Donna Edwards Donna Fern Edwards (born June 28, 1958) is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for from 2008 to 2017. The district included most of Prince George's County, as well as part of Anne Arundel County. She is a member of the ...

and Anton Gunn, activists Ady Barkan and Brad Woodhouse, and others as co-chairs. She hosts a weekly call-in streaming show and podcast for Americans with health care and health insurance questions, Care Talk. Packard was a featured speaker at the

2020 Democratic National Convention The 2020 Democratic National Convention was a United States presidential nominating convention, presidential nominating convention that was held from August 17 to 20, 2020, at the Wisconsin Center in Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and virtual ...

with

Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...

, sharing her personal health care story. A self-employed small business owner in Nevada, she was diagnosed with stage-4

Hodgkin lymphoma Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is a type of lymphoma in which cancer originates from a specific type of white blood cell called lymphocytes, where multinucleated Reed–Sternberg cells (RS cells) are present in the lymph nodes. The condition was named a ...

in 2017. Believing that the

Affordable Care Act The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and informally as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by Presid ...

saved her life and that without it she would be bankrupt or dead without the care she received through her insurance, Packard became an outspoken critic of repeal attempts. Her sharp questioning led

United States Senator The United States Senate consists of 100 members, two from each of the 50 U.S. state, states. This list includes all senators serving in the 119th United States Congress. Party affiliation Independent Senators Angus King of Maine and Berni ...

Dean Heller Dean Arthur Heller (born May 10, 1960) 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 ...

to eject her from a public event, and her criticism of President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

resulted in him blocking her on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

. A 2018 lawsuit,

Knight First Amendment Institute v. Trump ''Knight First Amendment Institute v. Trump'', 928 F.3d 226 (2nd Cir. 2019), was a Second Circuit Court of Appeals case on the use of social media as a Forum (legal), public forum. The plaintiffs, Philip N. Cohen, Eugene Gu, Holly Figueroa O'Rei ...

, forced President

to reinstate her access to his social media accounts, along with that of 40 others. Packard spoke on six national bus tours with progressive health care advocacy organization Protect Our Care in 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024, and a national bus tour with advocacy organization Courage for America on the debt ceiling crisis in 2023. Moving to Colorado in 2019, her political advocacy broadened to include challenges to

Cory Gardner Cory Scott Gardner (born August 22, 1974) 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 ...

’s community engagement, and she went on a statewide bus tour with “Cardboard Cory” to accentuate his purported inaccessibility. She also challenged

United States Representative The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

Lauren Boebert Lauren Opal Boebert ( ; ; born December 19, 1986) is an American politician, businesswoman, and gun rights activist serving as the U.S. representative for beginning in 2025, having previously represented from 2021 to 2025. From 2013 to 202 ...

's health care record. and was blocked by Boebert on Twitter in February 2022. In 2018, Packard was noted for her outspoken opposition to the nomination of

Justice In its broadest sense, justice is the idea that individuals should be treated fairly. According to the ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', the most plausible candidate for a core definition comes from the ''Institutes (Justinian), Inst ...

Brett Kavanaugh Brett Michael Kavanaugh (; born February 12, 1965) is an American lawyer and jurist serving as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated by President Donald Trump on July 9, 2018, and has served since Oct ...

. She was included again in media coverage for her 2020 opposition to the nomination of

Amy Coney Barrett Amy Vivian Coney Barrett (born January 28, 1972) is an American lawyer and jurist serving since 2020 as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. The fifth wom ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Packard, Laura Living people People from Virginia American activists 1976 births University of Michigan alumni