President Obama finalized the health care bill earlier today by signing into law several "fixes" of the original legislation approved by the House and the Senate. One of the provisions that was included in the revised bill makes the government the primary issuer of federal college loans. Under this new law, individual banks will no longer be able to issue federal student loans, and instead this money will now be lent directly from the government. The measure should save banks money because they will no longer have to pay fees for acting as middlemen in the college loan process, which in turn should lower interest rates and raise approval rates for students seeking loans. Obama touted this aspect as a major advantage of the measure, stating in his weekly radio address, "This reform of the federal student loan programs will save taxpayers $68 billion over the next decade." This law constitutes the largest revision of federal college aid programs in 40 years, and will take effect in 2014. This was a great measure to include in the health care bill (even though it really has nothing to do with health care). It makes good sense to eliminate banks from being the middlemen in allocating student loans, as now that the government does it the system will be more fair and standardized. It's also good that this measure could decrease interest rates, as doing so will make college more affordable to many Americans. This bill is overall a major victory for Obama, as he accomplished two of his goals in reforming health care and education. Read more at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125347342.
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