Obama signs health care "fixes" bill

WASHINGTON, March 30 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday signed into law the "fixes" bill of health care reform passed last week in the Congress.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday signs into law the "fixes" bill of health care reform passed last week in the Congress at a community college in Alexandria, Virginia, a Washington suburb. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

Obama signed the bill at a community college in Alexandria, Virginia, a Washington suburb. The bill contains changes to the main health care legislation he signed last week.

The bill also contains education provisions, which, according to the White House, would make higher education more affordable and help more Americans earn a college degree.

"For a long time, our student loan system has worked for banks and financial institutions," Obama said, "today, we're finally making our student loan system work for students and all of our families."  

The bill will invests more than 40 billion U.S. dollars in Pell Grants program, a federal funded program that provides need-based grants to low-income undergraduate students, to ensure that "all eligible students receive an award and that these awards are increased in future years to help keep pace with the rising cost of college."

The signing completes the health care legislative process. The health care reform consists of two legislations, the core part of which is the Senate version bill, formally the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which Obama signed last week. The "fixes" bill, formally Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, is the fixes the House of Representatives made to the Senate bill.

The health care issue has divided the American public, with Republicans and social groups challenging the reform on its requirement that most Americans must have insurance starting in 2014, or face penalties. On Friday, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons became the first medical society to sue to overturn the newly enacted health care bill, filing a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the association said in a press release Monday.

"If the PPACA (Senate bill) goes unchallenged, then it spells the end of freedom in medicine as we know it," said Jane Orient, executive director of the group.