He appeared to have made progress, winning over the Catholic hospital association and Catholic Charities - although not the nation's bishops - and reassuring wavering Democrats while keeping the support of groups such as Planned Parenthood.
Under the new plan, administration officials believe insurers will comply because the coverage may not actually cost them anything. Evidence suggests providing birth-control coverage reduces overall costs for health plans because birth control is much cheaper than pregnancy, according to administration officials and some health-industry analysts.
The fact that the compromise had not been proposed earlier angered the president, who felt let down by his staff, officials said. Obama waded into the details of the dispute himself and personally crafted the solution, according to a Democratic official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter.
From the beginning, the fight over the requirement that all health plans offer free birth-control coverage was animated by politics, deeply held beliefs, and the personalities of the people involved. Several prominent members of the president's team, including Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, argued strongly for the president's commitment to make contraceptives available to everyone.
But since November, others in Obama's circle had issued warnings of political trouble ahead. That month, chief of staff Bill Daley, who is Catholic, asked Obama to sit down with New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan, head of the bishops' conference, to talk about the impending contraceptives mandate.
