Mat-Su lawmakers’ bills now active in Legislature

The state Legislature is more than halfway through its 121-day 2025 session in Juneau and bills introduced by Mat-Su legislators are being considered in committees.

Sen. Shelley Hughes, R-Mat-Su, had two bills up for hearings last week. One was Senate Bill 4, proposing a “right to shop” law in comparing costs among health care providers.

Hughes presented the bill in the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee last Friday, March 21.

The bill would requires health insurance companies to provide comparisons of health costs among medical providers in an insurer’s “network” of approved providers. Consumers can choose the provider they wish but if they choose one offering a lower price for a procedure SB 4 would require the insurance company to share savings with consumers as well as employers if the patient is in insurance offered by an employer.

The medical provider would be one who charges below the median charges by providers in the insurer’s network for the procedure.

Nine states have passed similar “Right to Shop” laws, Hughes said. In New Hampshire, the first state to adopt the law, 90% of health insurance enrollees were using the program within the first three years of its enactment, Hughes said.

Another bill by Hughes is aimed at government efficiency and lowering the cost of government. Senate Bill 107 was up for a hearing in the Senate State Affairs Committee last Thursday, March 20.

“The size and scope of government can be difficult to grasp and understand. Too often it is unwieldy and hard to control. Currently, the House and Senate members are asked in a matter of a few months to figure out what is going on in each of the 15 (state) departments. Essentially, their window is what the executive branch provides,” Hughes said.

“With this limited information and in short order, legislators are tasked with making decisions every year involving billions of dollars,” she said.

Hughes’s bill would establish an “Alaska Sunset Commission” to audit the performance of state entities on a periodic basis. Under SB 107, after a review the Legislature must act, with legislation, to extend the agency or it is automatically terminated, or “sunset.”

The sunset board, appointed by the governor, would consist of seven members from the private sector with financial management and operations experience. Internal nonpartisan state auditors would do the reviews much like program audits that are now done of agencies on request.

The difference under SB 107 is that it would make it that the Legislature would be forced to act on the recommendations or the entity is terminated.

The proposal is based on the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission. Since its creation in 1977, the Texas commission has seen abolishment of 42 programs and agencies, consolidations of more, and $1 billion in savings, the Senate committee was told.

Another bill by a Mat-Su legislator, the one introduced March 12, would give Alaskans the option of purchasing an ownership share in an Alaska gas pipeline. It is Senate Bill 125.

It was brought up for an initial hearing in the Senate Resources Committee last Friday, March 21. The bill creates a special-purpose state corporation, the Alaska Gasline Finance Corp.

“This legislation creates a pathway for Alaskans to directly benefit from the development of our state’s resources, not just through job, but also through financial participation,” Sen. Rob Yundt said in introducing the bill.

“By allowing residents to invest in this project, the state could create a pathway for Alaskans to build personal and generational wealth while also supporting a project that could lower utility costs for decades to come,” he said.

The idea of Alaskans investing in the gas pipeline project has been around for many years. There have been options explored previously but little work was done to develop them mainly because the gas pipeline seemed a distant possibility.

But with President Donald Trump now a champion there are hopes the $43 billion-plus project, in the planning stages for decades, might finally get momentum.