Obama to give benefits to gay feds' partners

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By Christina Bellantoni and Jennifer Haberkorn

President Obama will sign an executive order Wednesday extending health care and other benefits to the partners of gay federal workers.

A White House official confirmed Tuesday that Mr. Obama would make the change during an early evening Oval Office event billed as "regarding federal benefits and nondiscrimination."

The official said the administration would outline details Wednesday as the president issues the order.

The State Department recently made similar changes to its policy.

The administration is making the move as Mr. Obama faces criticism for not repealing "don't ask, don't tell," as he promised on the campaign trail. The policy, implemented under President Clinton, bans openly gay people from serving in the military.

Earlier Tuesday, Congress' chief scorekeeper put a crimp in Democrats' goal of passing health care reform this year by estimating that their proposals may cost more than expected and may bump millions of people out of their employer-provided insurance.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said that a new public health plan or more tax subsidies for private insurance would add about $100 billion a year in federal health care spending, and still wouldn't be enough to cover the skyrocketing cost of medical care unless combined with "fundamental" changes in the way health care is financed and delivered.

President Obama has said any plan to expand health care coverage must not add to deficits - a stamp of approval that only the CBO can deliver - making the CBO assessments a significant hurdle to passage. Republicans and fiscally conservative Democrats are cautious of any bill that would add significantly to the national debt.

The report on controlling long-term costs was released a day after CBO calculated that a Senate plan by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee would cost $1 trillion and still leave about 36million uninsured.

The report also found that 15 million people likely would lose their employer-provided benefits, undermining Democrats' pledge that Americans who like their current health care plans will be able to keep them.