Christopher Williams’ front page piece in the April 17 Sun Journal highlighted the efforts of a small group of people who are striving to establish a single-payer health care system in Maine, a system that study after study have found is unworkable given federal restrictions and is unaffordable.

Many more small business owners support a redesign of the health care system along the lines of systems that are operating (with federal help) in 31 other states. This system would create a high risk pool and, according to experts, would result in individual health insurance rate decreases in the neighborhood of 40 percent.

That would be very efficient and would not require the creation of a large state-funded nonprofit bureaucracy, as proposed by Gov. Baldacci.

Janvier K. Smith, Topsham