Obama Signs Healthcare Reform Fixes

President Obama went back to school as he used a community college in Virginia to sign the fixes for the healthcare reform bill recently passed by Congress.

President Obama went back to school as he used a community college in Virginia to sign the fixes for the healthcare reform bill recently passed by Congress.  The additional bill made the changes necessary to pass reform through both the House and Congress.  In addition to key insurance reforms, the fix also added a change to student loan funding for college students struggling with debt.

Among other things, the “fixes” bill significantly expands health insurance subsidies for lower- and middle-income families while watering down a tax on expensive health policies.

The bill also increases the overall cost of the health care reform legislation to $940 billion over the next 10 years, $65 billion more than the original health care bill Obama signed into law last week.

In addition, it overhauls the national college student loan system by shifting government funding for loans away from commercial banks to new education initiatives. Until now, commercial banks have received federal subsidies to provide student loans.

But the President admits that there is still a great deal of ground to cover before healthcare reform is truly done.  As he tells Matt Lauer in a recent interview, what we have seen so far is only a first step.  See his full interview here:

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