Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. ? President Bush tried Monday to drum up support for a Medicare prescription drug benefit that begins next year, encouraging audiences to learn about the new plan even if they don’t want to sign up.

“Some folks simply don’t want any change, and I understand that completely. But I urge you to take a look,” the president said at a senior citizens center.

Bush said the program contains many options for consumers. “The more options available, the more likely it is you’re going to get what you want,” he said.

Focusing on a domestic issue amid rising criticism of his handling of the Iraq war, the president spent the day pitching the benefit program here and in Arizona. He also was traveling to San Diego, where he planned to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II with a speech today that also would reference the Iraq war.

The events were hundreds of miles from his ranch in Crawford, Texas, where anti-war activists have dogged him since he arrived there in early August. Still, a couple hundred demonstrators followed him.

President Bush is applauded upon his arrival Monday at the Pueblo El Mirage RV Resort and Country Club in El Mirage, Ariz. Bush is hosting conversations with experts and the elderly in El Mirage and Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., in an effort to sell older Americans on the value of a prescription drug benefit that begins next year for Medicare patients.

In this city east of Los Angeles, anti-war protesters chanting “Impeach Bush” on one corner faced a pro-Bush crowd singing “God Bless America” on the opposite corner.

On Medicare, the president said he knows “that many seniors don’t want to change. And, that they’re not interested in change.”

“If you’re worried about change, you do not have to change when it comes to Medicare. But if you’re someone, for example, who’s having to struggle between food and medicine, those days are over with,” he said.

As the president made his remarks, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that the government will offer prescription drug coverage with lower premiums than expected.

Anit-war protesters, left, and President Bush supporters clash Monday during a demonstration near where Bush made a speech on Medicare.

The department had said enrollees would pay a monthly premium averaging about $32, and millions of poor people would pay nothing. It had said beneficiaries also would have a $250 deductible, meaning they would have to pay that amount for their prescriptions before the plan covered expenses. Again, millions of beneficiaries would not have any deductible.

But on Monday, the department said people in each state, except Alaska, will have the choice of at least one plan that offers some benefit for a monthly premium under $20.