Clinton to Highlight Health Care in State of Union Speech : Presidency: He’ll seek to regain momentum on the issue. Address will also focus on his commitment to electorate to work to solve economic and social woes.

President Clinton plans to devote a full third of his State of the Union Address Tuesday to health care reform in a bid to restore momentum to the initiative, aides say. He also may disclose new details of Administration plans on gun control and welfare reform.

In its broadest terms, the speech to a joint session of Congress is being crafted to address what the White House sees as Clinton’s chief liability with voters--a lack of trust.

On the economy, deficit reduction and other topics, Clinton intends to remind his audience of what he pledged to accomplish, review what his Administration has delivered so far and then lay out the steps that he believes are still needed.

“The overriding goal is to convince people that he is keeping his commitment to them,” a senior White House official said. “And to demonstrate that what he’s doing matters to them.”

The speech will center on themes that Clinton has used to unite his agenda and appeal to the broad political center: work, community service, economic opportunity and family security.

Echoing a well-received address he delivered in Memphis, Tenn., last November, the President will call for new efforts to fight violence and crime by building communities and strengthening families.

And to show that the White House is looking out for middle-class Americans, Clinton will list accomplishments he believes will benefit them greatly--two new trade agreements, the family leave act, the Brady handgun-control measure and deficit-reduction efforts.

Clinton’s two earlier addresses to Congress, on his economic and health care plans, were generally well-received. The job he faces in this one is daunting. He must set the stage for a year that may bring decisive battles on his health care, welfare reform, job training and anti-crime initiatives.

“Last year, Clinton was cleaning up the plate on a lot of issues that were hanging around from the Bush-Reagan years,” said Tony Coelho, a former California congressman who now advises the White House. “This year he will be moving onto issues that will be defining for his presidency.”

Clinton also hopes to refocus public attention that has recently drifted from his legislative goals to questions surrounding his investments in the Whitewater land deal and other personal issues.

Regaining the momentum on health care will not be easy.

Congressional and business opposition has hardened since the President unveiled his 1,342-page plan last fall, with a slowdown in the spiraling costs of medical care easing the urgency for reform.

Clinton also will try to overcome critics’ charges that he does not wish to push the divisive issue of welfare reform at the same time his health plan is occupying lawmakers’ attention. He will argue, aides say, that health care and welfare reform must occur simultaneously.

And, sensitive to the public’s increased concern about crime, Clinton has been saying that the nation needs to move beyond the Brady bill. His speech is likely to include a call for anti-crime measures that he has recently embraced, including a ban on assault weapons and an end to parole for violent repeat offenders.

Clinton also is expected to call for swift enactment of the anti-crime bill that has taken different forms in the House and Senate.

One aide hinted that Clinton is contemplating calling for other steps as well, but declined to disclose them because “we want to save something for a surprise.”

Clinton’s review of the recently strengthened economy is expected to lead remarks about the training and education initiatives that will figure prominently in the Administration’s 1994 efforts.

California’s distress--from earthquakes and other disasters--also is likely to be mentioned. “He was there this week, and it’s at the top of his mind,” one aide said.

Foreign policy will be of secondary concern in Tuesday’s address. But Clinton is expected to argue the primacy of economic concerns, including trade, in foreign affairs.

And he will argue, as he did in Moscow last week, that closer global economic ties have made domestic and foreign concerns identical.

Clinton began working on the speech before Christmas, and took the paperwork with him when he went home to Arkansas and later to Hilton Head, S. C., over New Year’s weekend. He had several meetings on the speech this week, including one on the way back from Los Angeles on Wednesday.

He also took drafts with him Friday afternoon as he flew to Camp David, Md., for a weekend retreat. But there were signs Clinton was, characteristically, still far from his final text.

After a meeting Thursday afternoon, two speech-writing assistants were directed to redraft the address’ health care section. And Friday, although a number of aides pored over copies of the draft, they predicted that Clinton would rewrite until the last moment and extemporize freely, as he did with his Feb. 17 economic address.

“What’s written down here is likely to have, in fact, zero connection to what he says on Tuesday,” an aide said.

Times staff writers Jack Nelson, David Lauter and Elizabeth Shogren contributed to this story.