KAPA‘A — U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono joined AARP Hawai‘i for a health care town hall Wednesday, and “civility, aloha and dignity” prevailed in lieu of the division, fear and fighting that has plagued similar meetings across the country this summer.

Hirono and the group formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons sought to dispel a number of myths that they said have been promulgated by opponents of health care reform. Attending retirees largely adhered to rules posted outside the Aston Kaua‘i Beach at Maka‘iwa’s Paddle Room outlawing signs and disruptions.

AARP Hawai‘i’s Bruce Bottorff presented a list of seven myths that have been used to promote fear among U.S. citizens, especially seniors.

Bottorff said health care reform is not socialized medicine, that reform would not mean rationed care, that none of the current proposals would hurt Medicare, that health care reform is not too expensive and that the federal government will not be able to make life-and-death decisions for individuals.

AARP Hawai‘i state director Barbara Kim Stanton urged AARP members to get the facts and not give in to scare tactics like the infamous “death panel” fabrication, spread far and wide by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

The lone exception to the event’s aloha style occurred when attendees shouted down Princeville resident Lynn Call, telling him to ask his question and asking organizers to remove him from the event.

Call raised his “grave concerns” about House Bill 3200, arguing that providing coverage for 47 million currently uninsured Americans would overwhelm the system and would create longer wait times for doctors, that estimates of the long-term costs of the program are likely inaccurate, that the government does a poor job managing businesses like the Post Office, and that the federal government has no place in health care.

“Health care is not a right,” Call said, adding that the bill currently under discussion “is an enemy to the Constitution.”

Hirono disagreed, saying, “Government has a very positive role to play.” The congresswoman said citizens are guaranteed the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” — actually a phrase from the Declaration of Independence and not the U.S. Constitution.

Proponents of reform have argued that Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution vests Congress with the power “to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises (and) to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States,” and that “general welfare” covers health care.

The 10th Amendment to the Constitution says, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.” Health care opponents and other small-government advocates have pointed to this clause in defense of states’ rights.

Attendees later snickered when Call nodded in the affirmative when asked by Hirono if he participates in Medicare, a health care program specifically designed for senior citizens that has been provided by the federal government for decades.

Call clarified in an e-mail to The Garden Island later Wednesday that he participates in Medicare because he has paid for it and continues to pay for it, but also believes it to be an unconstitutional program.

Other attendees voiced their support for Hirono and health care reform, taking to the microphone to discuss other issues like tort reform, support of primary care physicians, preventative care, long-term care, a single-payer system, coverage of illegal immigrants, government compensation of specialists, emergency room services, and, on more than one occasion, the lack of competition in the health care industry and the need for a public option.

Hirono said the proposals would lower costs, improve quality of coverage and create choice for Americans, and promised attendees that “We are not about to do anything that will harm what you have” and “We’re going to pay for what it takes to effect these changes” without an increase to the deficit.

“The public option will provide competition to the private insurance market,” Hirono said. “It will keep them on their toes and competing.”

Hirono was among 60 Democrats in the House of Representatives’ Progressive Caucus to sign a letter, sent to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the chairmen of three House committees working on health care legislation and eventually Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, warning that any bill without “a public option with reimbursement rates based on Medicare rates — not negotiated rates — is unacceptable” and would not get their votes.

Hirono, a member of the House Committee on Education and Labor, was described by Stanton as being “right in the center of all the action.” The congresswoman introduced an amendment that will exempt Hawai‘i’s health care law from certain restrictions if the provision survives reconciliation with two other House Committees’ versions and the U.S. Senate’s legislation in coming weeks and months.

In an interview later Wednesday outside the Mo‘ikeha Building, Hirono said all three House versions of the bill contain a public option. Asked if she would vote against a bill without a public option, even if that meant the bill would not pass, she said it would be “pretty tough” to vote for such a bill.

“We know health care reform has other elements to it,” Hirono said, but “the bill that comes out of the House had better have a strong public option.”

For more information about AARP’s Health Action Now campaign, visit www.healthactionnow.org. For more information or to contact Hirono, visit hirono.house.gov.

• Michael Levine, assistant news editor, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or mlevine@kauaipubco.com.