In regard to your front page report on May 23, “Health care reform yes, soda tax no, Snowe says”. The competition Senator Snowe sees in health care financing is an illusion. Insurance companies act as a “fiscal intermediary”. They serve no logical function. It is as silly as creating a fiscal intermediary level for food that would allow you to shop at either Shaw’s or Hannaford’s but only after you paid a premium to the insurance company for the privilege to shop there.

Health care financing is broken at the federal level and everyone seems to know that except the Senator whose committee is in charge of fixing it. No other country in the world finances health care the way we do. When will she get it?

Jim Tierney, Auburn