I don’t want to scare anyone, but if you really believe President Obama’s government-run health care option is just a benign attempt to inject some competition into the health care system (I’m lookin’ at you, Paul and Robert Reich), take a look at what Congressman George Miller is proposing for the student loan industry.

In today’s Politico, Miller, the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, outlines a new bill that would, among other things, end the issuance of federally guaranteed student loans by private banks. All originating would now be done by the federal government, a proposal President Obama made during his campaign.

“Banks,” you may recall, were institutions that developed expertise in lending.

But don’t worry, Miller says. There’s still room for the banks: “Rather than force private industry out of the system, we will forge a new public-private partnership that … allow[s] lenders and nonprofits to keep doing what they do best: service loans.”

In other words: Banks still have a role to play … as government contractors.

What Miller and his colleagues genuinely believe is that if the federal government has access to more money than every other institution, it ought to just provide financing directly. But once you start making that argument, it becomes easier and easier to justify forcing the government to be the financier for pretty much everything – especially big-ticket items like health care.

But don’t worry, even if that comes to pass, doctors, hospitals, and insurers will still have a role to play … as government contractors.