From the Los Angeles Times:

The healthcare provisions and changes to the loan program for college students were sandwiched into a single piece of legislation — the budget reconciliation bill approved last week by the House and Senate.

And while the overhaul to the healthcare system is historic, the changes in the student loan program — though smaller — are also drastic.

The bill shifts responsibility for making low-interest student loans to the government, ending the federal subsidies and guarantees now given to private banks that lend to students.

The new law ends the role of private banks as middlemen, cuts program costs, and channels the extra money to the neediest students, ending years of controversy over a system in which both the government and the private sector were major players.