MA'ILI — Bill and Melissa Xenos wanted to know whether President Obama's health care reform plan would put the federal government in control of end-of-life decisions or finance elective abortions.

Ed Lauer wondered whether there would be enough primary care doctors to cover the millions of uninsured who may receive health care through a government-backed public insurance option.

In a summer where many town hall meetings on health care reform have turned into rhetorical brushfires, an intimate gathering last night with U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono at the Sea Country community clubhouse was more conversation than confrontation.

"The increasing cost of health care will not go away in this country unless we address it," Hirono, D-Hawai'i, told the small audience.

Hirono said she favors the House version of a reform plan she believes would contain costs through prevention, offer consumer choice through a public option, and preserve the state's Prepaid Health Care Act of 1974, which requires companies to provide insurance to employees who work at least 20 hours a week.

Hirono inserted an exemption for the Prepaid Health Care Act into the House bill and said she hopes it survives.

"That gives Hawai'i a choice," she said. "Hawai'i gets to assess whether we want to maintain what we have."

The congresswoman told Lauer she would consider — but not promise — to speak out for additional incentives to increase the number of primary care doctors.

She told the Xenos couple that the House version would not put government in charge of end-of-life decisions but would reimburse doctors who provide such counseling to patients. She said the bill would not finance elective abortions.

Lauer, the general resident manager at Sea Country, invited Hirono and a few dozen residents to attend the meeting. Residents submitted questions that were shared with the congresswoman in advance so she could prepare.

Hirono also took live questions from the audience on issues such as the federal stimulus package, transportation, renewable energy, military health care, and the Native Hawaiian federal recognition bill.

"We wanted to actually talk and get some answers, not have yelling and screaming," said Lauer, who described himself as a conservative who is against the public option aspect of the reform plan. "We just wanted a real dialogue about what's going on."

Bill Xenos, a pastor, said his questions to Hirono were based on his reservations about the impact of the reform plan on end-of-life care and abortion. Despite Hirono's assurances, he said, information from nonpartisan sources such as the St. Petersburg Times' www.PolitiFact.com suggests abortions may be covered.

www.PolitiFact.com found that abortion coverage could be part of a public option but that funding would likely come from consumer premiums, not federal tax dollars.

"I think discussion is always worthwhile," Xenos said of the meeting with Hirono. "But it seems to me that sometimes there's not enough facts."

Hirono and other members of the state's congressional delegation have been criticized by some opponents for not holding town hall meetings on health care during the August recess.

Hirono and U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawai'i, did hold town hall meetings on health care earlier this year.

"Here's a group of people who had some genuine concerns and they invited me to talk with them, and I did," Hirono said afterward.

"These kinds of meetings, I think, are very productive," she said.

"It allows me to listen to them without a lot of yelling and screaming."