Fallout from the passed health care bill

Since the health care bill passed, there have been a lot of headlines — some grumbling, some praise, and some political posturing from politicians and insurers alike.

In one particularly scary headline, the health insurance companies claimed they had found a loophole and were therefore not going to comply with the requirement that they immediately start covering children with pre-existing conditions. This ought to show how blatantly evil the insurers are, that they would flat-out state that they weren't going to cover sick kids! I mean, how heartless can you be?

Luckily, the White House was able to put enough pressure on them that they changed their tune:

Insurers to Comply with New Rules for Children

In other news, a measure was just passed to alter a few parts of the health bill:

It also eliminates special deals, such as $100 million to help Nebraska pay for its share of Medicaid, the joint federal-state health program.

In addition, the reconciliation bill will change the way college students borrow money from the government. Previously, government-sponsored student loans were issued by banks, which contributed to a lot of students' confusion as to whether their loans were from the government or from the bank. Banks were basically taking advantage of the government-back student loan program to sell students on more expensive, private loans. That will end now, as the reconciliation bill takes government backed loans away from the banks — from now on, students will get their loans through the schools, eliminating confusion and saving the government a lot of money.

I'm not really a fan of bills that contain a little bit of everything, because I think they tend to confuse the issue. Even if the student loans stuff has nothing to do with the health bill, though, in this case I think it's a good thing!