OS ANGELES - Vice President Al Gore promised yesterday to ensure that all children have access to affordable health care by 2005. He offered a broad package aimed at providing as many as 15 million uninsured Americans with health care.
Yet the Democratic presidential candidate stressed that, if he captured the White House, he would pursue the same incremental approach to changing health care that President Clinton adopted after his attempt to revamp the system failed to win congressional approval in 1994.
''We have all learned that we cannot overhaul the system in one fell swoop,'' Gore said at Children's Hospital. ''Experience has taught us that there is a way to keep what is right, while fixing what is wrong with American health care.''
The unveiling of Gore's health care proposals, and Texas Governor George W. Bush's announcement of his education program last week, moves the campaign for the White House to a new stage as the candidates begin offering specifics on their agendas.
Gore did not mention Bush in his remarks, but one allusion was aimed at the Republican presidential front-runner. Gore said: ''In some states - Texas springs to mind - one-quarter of all children are still out in the cold,'' Gore said.
With his proposal, the vice president staked out different ground from that of his Democratic rival, former Senator Bill Bradley, who has said he will propose something approaching universal coverage, and Republicans and health industry advocates, who fear that imposing too many mandates on private health care firms will drive up costs.
While portions of his package were new, Gore borrowed heavily from initiatives promoted by Clinton, and, in a few cases, by Republicans.
Gore did not estimate the cost of his proposals. A spokesman, Chris Lehane, said that that would come ''in the near future,'' but that he did not anticipate a tax increase would be needed to finance them.
According to Gore, 43 million Americans lack health care coverage, and the number has grown by about 1 million a year this decade. Some 11 million children are uninsured.
To cover them, Gore would expand the Children's Health Insurance Program, which helps states provide coverage to children in working families. Currently, states can use the federal insurance program funds to cover children in families that earn up to 200 percent of the poverty level. Gore would raise that cap to 250 percent.
As Clinton has, Gore proposed allowing ''vulnerable Americans'' to buy into the Medicare program as early as age 55. Gore promised a 25 percent tax credit to help defray the cost.
Gore's plan includes the following:
It would let people with disabilities keep Medicare or Medicaid when they returned to the workplace. Such a proposal has passed the Senate and is awaiting consideration in the House.
It would encourage small businesses to band together to negotiate rates for their workers' coverage by providing a 25 percent tax credit to the firms. Republicans favor such an approach.
It would press for a ''real, enforceable'' Patients' Bill of Rights, similar to legislation that Congress will consider this month.
Yesterday in Olney, Md., President Clinton continued to criticize the GOP tax-cut plan, saying it would force cuts in education spending as classroom populations swell and schools across America need renewal. ''It is basic arithmetic,'' Clinton told 400 students and parents outside Brooke Grove Elementary School.
The president said that the Republican plan would force an education spending cut as deep as 20 percent in the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1, and that in the next 10 years it would slash as much as 50 percent in reading programs and in Head Start, which helps very young poor pupils prepare for school.
