(The Center Square) – Thursday marked the second day of the annual American Legislative Exchange Council meeting, where state legislators, policy experts, and business leaders gathered to discuss policy priorities and model legislation.
In her opening statement, Republican state Sen. Patricia Rucker of West Virginia highlighted the diverse challenges faced by state lawmakers.
“For some of them, it might be education policy and empowering parents,” Rucker began. “For others, it might be tax reform or trying to roll back government regulations on businesses.”
To kick off the session, Rucker introduced Will Hild, executive director of Consumers’ Research, who addressed the growing pushback against Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investing.
“You have large banks, large asset managers, large insurers, and some of the proxy advisors forcing corporations that just want to focus on making money and serving their consumers to instead focus on the personal politics of people,” Hild said.
ALEC CEO Lisa B. Nelson invited Dr. Arthur Laffer to discuss the famous “Laffer Curve” and share his advice for public officials.
“Whenever you raise the highest tax rate on the top one percent of income earners, three things happen: the economy underperforms, tax revenues fall, and the poor get hammered,” Laffer said.
Nelson then shifted her focus to healthcare, where she talked about medical transparency and how ALEC built a bond with Cynthia Fisher and an advocacy group for patients. She also mentioned a medical price transparency bill and asked Michigan state Sen. Jonathan Lindsey what he thought about it.
“I’m optimistic about it,” Lindsey began. “I think there are only three states within the last year that have adopted state-level policy on medical price transparency.”
While HIPAA was enacted to safeguard personal health data, critics like Laffer contend it’s frequently invoked to block efforts at price transparency in healthcare
“HIPAA is not there to protect patients’ privacy,” Laffer said. “HIPAA is there to protect hospitals from disclosing what their prices are and how they’re ripping you off.”
• Ashley Olds is an intern reporter and member of the 2025 Searle Freedom Trust and Young America’s Foundation National Journalism Center Apprentice and Internship initiative.
