LEWISTON — Long-term care providers, hospital officials and small business owners from Lewiston and Auburn all got face time with U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud, a Democrat from Maine’s 2nd District, in meetings Tuesday and Wednesday.

Michaud said he wasn’t surprised to hear widespread agreement from the stakeholders that health care costs are rising at an unsustainable rate.

“It’s pretty much a lot that I’ve heard through phone calls or letters that people have been writing,” he said Wednesday.

Medical malpractice lawsuits, cost-shifting from Medicare and Medicaid to private insurers and a lack of competition in health insurance markets are all contributing to skyrocketing health care premiums, Michaud said.

Kathie Leonard, president and chief executive officer of Auburn Manufacturing Inc., said her premiums would have gone up 17 percent this year if she had kept the health benefits for her employees the same.

“We have struggled with these health care costs since the mid-’80s; I feel bad that I have to apologize to my employees every year,” she said, adding that she supports a public option because she thinks it will make health care more affordable.

Leonard said health care premiums make up more than 15 percent of her payroll costs.

Bill Clarke, co-founder of The Geek Team, a Web design and software development firm in Greene, agreed that costs were too high, but said he opposed a public option.

“Ultimately, it’s going to end up destroying the private health system,” he said of a government-run plan that would be offered along side private plans. “Let’s tweak the system, but don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.”

Catherine Raynor of Morin’s Fine Furniture and Refinishing in Auburn said when she has looked into providing health care for her employees, every time they’ve preferred to get a raise instead.

“They roll the dice and just hope they don’t get sick, and if they do, that the hospitals will help them out,” she said, adding that she currently has no health insurance herself and has gone without it for 15 years.

Raynor said she’s been on the losing side of that gamble and is currently making payments on hospital debt she owes because of an accident.

Central Maine Healthcare officials used their meeting with Michaud to highlight steps they’ve taken to provide high-quality health care to central Maine, particularly in rural areas.

“It’s exciting for us, we are poised to do some very innovative things,” said Peter Chalke, president of Central Maine Healthcare. “Some reform is necessary. But our train is at the station, and we’re saying, don’t mess up our train.”

When he visited Lutheran Social Services in Auburn on Tuesday, Michaud was asked if long-term care was getting discussed as part of health care reform and he said, “It’s not getting as much attention as it should be.”

Michaud, who supports a public option, was also asked what such a plan would include — something he said he couldn’t answer, because Congress hasn’t made detailed decisions about it yet.

“No one knows what the public option will look like and it’s that uncertainty that’s concerning a lot of people,” he said.

Michaud, who supports a public option, said he will continue meeting with Mainers for the remainder of the August recess and look for where there is consensus about reforms.

“The good news is everyone is talking about it and hopefully there will be more than just talk and Congress will be able to move forward and put something together that will make a difference in people’s lives,” he said.

Michaud also had scheduled a “telephone town hall” for Wednesday evening, where he would take questions from the public about health care.

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Kathie Leonard, president and CEO of Auburn Manufacturing, speaks with U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud during a small business owner forum on health care at the Muskie Archives on the Bates College campus Wednesday.