Introduction: State-Level Healthcare Reform as the Centered Theme

Texas Representative Caroline Harris-Davila is advocating to make healthcare prices clear in Texas. During the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) hosted policy summit, she elaborated on the importance of transparent pricing and the role of states in leading reform.

ALEC Summit Highlights

Harris-Davila's speech at the ALEC States and Nation Policy Summit focused on the cooperation of state legislatures to exchange practical policy ideas as a value. She explained the role of ALEC in allowing legislators to learn from the others' victories and hurdles.

Harris-Davila is the representative of a district next to Austin, Texas with a population of around 200,000. Initially, she won the election in 2022 and is currently on her second term. Prior to her political career, she had a job as a legislative aide which she believed was the right training ground for the lawmaking process.

Healthcare Price Transparency Work in Texas

Harris-Davila has dedicated a large portion of her efforts to the cause of making healthcare billing more transparent for patients. In her initial legislative session, she managed to get a law passed that mandated hospitals to provide patients with bills that were itemized, and which indicated the services and their respective prices, in plain language, even before the payment was made.

A patient with insurance can find it not so difficult, but still confusing, to navigate through the healthcare system due to the lack of clear pricing and billing mistakes. During her talk, an incident of a patient who was charged for a cervical exam, which is not appropriate for a male patient, was narrated by her. Such blunders, she argues, make it all the more important for patients to be provided with bills that are clear and easy to understand.

Why Transparency Matters

Harris-Davila stresses that knee replacements and other everyday operations can be priced very differently, even in cases where the difference reaches tens of thousands of dollars, depending on the location the patient chooses. Patients are left without any good means for comparing costs and making educated decisions due to the lack of clear prices at the beginning.

She is not willing to accept the concept that uncertain cost "estimates" can still be regarded as equivalent to actual prices. On the contrary, she holds that buyers should be informed of the precise costs before they consent to the treatment.

Impact on Texans and Policy Goals

Harris-Davila characterizes her efforts as a service to ordinary Texans rather than an abstract policy. She remembers getting a message from a young mother who had a hard time figuring out the healthcare costs and said that it was very encouraging to her that the government was working on the real issues.