(From SmartMoney) Changes to Medicare, prescription coverage – and student loans? The health-care legislation approved by the House on Sunday does more than just revamp the health-care system. It also shakes up federal?student?loans and Pell grants.

The most crucial part of federal student aid reforms includes a transition to 100% federal student loan funding from the direct?loan?program – directly from the government – while eliminating banks and private lenders as the middle man. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), this decision will help the government save $61 billion over 10 years – savings that are included as part of the health-care overhaul. Of that, at least $10 billion will go toward reducing the national deficit over 10 years, says Edie Irons, a spokeswoman for The Project on Student Debt, an independent nonprofit that tracks college student debt. “The huge savings generated by streamlining the student-loan program are part of what made health care possible,” she says.

Students can also expect to see increases in the maximum amount of the Pell grant, but those increases will be small compared to President Obama’s proposals in his State of the Union address in late January. And changes to income-based repayment plans – in which a borrower repays their federal student loans based on their discretionary?income (not debt) – are now years away from being implemented and will help a fraction of borrowers than what was initially intended.

Read more here: Health-Care Reform and Your Student Loans