From coast to coast, state lawmakers are pushing legislation in hopes of putting a lid on rising drug prices. More than a dozen bills have been proposed that require companies to either fork over information about their costs or explain recent price hikes for some medicines.

The idea is based on a simple premise – by forcing the pharmaceutical industry to provide this sort of data, the curtain will be peeled back on the decisions used to justify pricing. In turn, drug makers would presumably respond to the scrutiny by changing their practices.

“This bill is about accountability,” Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin declared this past June, when he signed legislation that demands companies account for certain price hikes. In doing so, he gave Vermont the distinction of becoming the first state to pass such a law.

Admirable as it is, this transparency movement is unlikely to make much, if any, difference.

To be sure, state legislators have good reason to look at pricing. Last year, average prices for prescription drugs increased 10 percent, according to Truveris, a health care data company. And prices for brand-name medicines, specifically, jumped nearly 15 percent.

Of course, it’s easy to vent at a few companies that jack up prices by sky-high amounts — think Martin Shkreli or Valeant Pharmaceuticals. But pricing was a “key driver” of overall industry profit growth last year, adding an estimated 8 percent to overall net income, according to Credit Suisse analysts. In other words, lots of companies have been boosting prices.

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