On the Agenda: Revamping U.S. Health Care : Visit: President Bush helps launch new county immunization program while stumping for his just-revealed health care plan.

President Bush watched Friday as a small boy squealed while receiving a diphtheria shot at the Logan Heights Family Health Center, where officials launched San Diego County’s aggressive new immunization program.

Seventeen-month-old Edwin Gonzalez recovered quickly from the needle sting as Bush--at his grandfatherly best--donned a blue mitten puppet and began playfully growling, “Woof, woof, woof.”

Bush, lobbying hard for his newly announced plan to cut health costs while providing better access to care, spent his morning touring the federally funded Barrio Logan clinic and addressing the Rotary Club on Harbor Island, where he was warmly received and frequently applauded.

“Mr. President, I told you it would be a friendly crowd,” Gov. Pete Wilson told Bush before the standing, clapping crowd at the Sheraton Harbor Island Hotel.

Bush’s reception--from barrio toddlers to predominantly Republican business leaders--during two hours of handshaking and speechmaking had to be reassuring for a president whose advisers have been warned bluntly in recent weeks that Bush’s political standing in California has plummeted.

Bush arrived 15 minutes late for his Rotary address, having dallied at the health clinic, in a poor and crime-ridden neighborhood, to chat with parents and children. There, he posed with Marcia Simmons, who held her 5-month-old daughter on her lap as she waited for an appointment at the clinic’s early-intervention program for drug-exposed infants.

Before Bush’s arrival, Simmons told reporters that she had no money for health insurance and had to wait until the eighth month of her pregnancy to qualify for government help.

“I’m for socialized medicine,” Simmons said.

As Bush departed the clinic, more than 100 children from Logan Elementary School lined the sidewalks, clamoring for his attention, pumping his hand and asking for his autograph.

One little boy asked if Bush was running for election.

“Don’t tell them,” Bush said, pointing to the reporters tailing him. “Next Tuesday, you watch the big announcement.”

The announcement, however, is scheduled for Wednesday, not Tuesday, presidential press secretary Marlin Fitzwater said.

When Bush reached the Rotary Club, he joked frequently but rigorously defended his health care plan, which has drawn tremendous fire from critics who call it “a Band-Aid.”

Bush also offered his “old-fashioned” prescription to cut skyrocketing health care costs.

“I believe personal responsibility has a lot to do with making America a better country,” he told the crowd.

He admonished Americans to shape up, drink less and avoid drugs, cigarettes and “risky sexual behavior.”

The President came to San Diego to help kick off the county’s new immunization program, a follow-up to a Rose Garden ceremony last June when he announced stepped-up efforts to immunize youngsters.

Aimed at improving immunization levels, Bush and Health Secretary Louis W. Sullivan said that “SWAT teams” from the Health and Human Services Department would visit six cities: San Diego, Philadelphia, Detroit, Phoenix, Dallas and Rapid City, S.D.

Administration health officials hope the program, which is already being touted as a potential model for the country, will help meet Bush’s goal of having, before the year 2000, at least 90% of all children fully immunized by age 2.

In San Diego, 52.3% of toddlers under age 2 lack the recommended immunizations; statewide, the rate is 51%. In many states across the nation, the rate is 50%.

“We have to change that, and I am determined that we will,” Bush said. “It won’t be easy to immunize every child, and yet the government will do its part. And the private sector needs to do its part as well.”