It was a battle to keep provisions for Libby asbestos victims in the new federal health-care bill, but it was worth the fight, U.S. Sen. Max Baucus told a crowd gathered Wednesday for the groundbreaking of the Center for Asbestos Related Disease (CARD clinic) expansion.

“You don’t know how hard it was to keep that in the statute,” Baucus said about the political wrangling that went on before the landmark legislation was passed.

The bill funds screening and provides Medicare coverage for Libby asbestos patients even if they’re under age 65. A key provision provides ongoing health care to all victims of public health emergencies, but Libby is the first community in the United States to get a public-health emergency declaration from the federal Environmental Protection Agency. There’s also funding in the new bill for public education of asbestos disease.

Libby continues to deal with the aftermath of widespread death and disease prompted by toxic asbestos exposure from the former W.R. Grace & Co. vermiculite mine near Libby. More than 300 deaths have been linked to asbestos disease, and the CARD clinic currently serves close to 3,000 patients with various stages of asbestos disease.

To qualify for asbestos-related health care under the new federal bill, patients must have a diagnosis of asbestos-related disease confirmed by a CT scan or chest X-ray or asbestos-related cancer confirmed by a tissue sample, explained Kalispell attorney Jon Heberling of the McGarvey, Heberling, Sullivan & McGarvey law firm that represents hundreds of Libby asbestos victims. The bill also requires at least six months residence in a public-health emergency area.

“There will be an application process, which will need to be set up by the government,” Heberling said. “This may take a couple of years. But eventually there will be Medicare coverage (excepting prescription drug coverage) for Libby asbestos victims.”

Heberling praised the work done by both Baucus and Sen. Jon Tester.

“This is the most significant step ever taken by the government for Libby asbestos disease patients,” he added.

Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and a key author of the health-care reform bill signed into law by President Obama last week, has kept Libby health-care needs in the spotlight.

“Today was a great day for CARD and the people of Libby,” Baucus said at the groundbreaking. “We’re all in this together, and it’s really through team work that we’re able to get this expansion done. It’s also great day because now the people of Libby will get the health care they need and deserve.”

Baucus said that the EPA designation, along with the new legislation, “has triggered over $300 million [in health aid for Libby] over the next 10 years. This is going to be bigger and better than the aid that was given to victims of 9/11.”

 So far, $6 million has materialized from the emergency declaration — $2 million from the Centers for Disease Control for asbestos screen and surveillance over two years, and $4 million from the Health Resources Service administration for asbestos-related health-care services.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com