The landmark health-care reform bill that was expected to be signed into law by President Barack Obama on Tuesday is slated to expand Medicare coverage to locals suffering from asbestos-related health conditions.

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., included the measure to provide an avenue for the federal government to subsidize health care for victims of government-declared public health emergencies, a mandate in the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, which was passed in 1980.

“For 30 years, the law has been clear that when a public health emergency is declared, screening and medical care services are to be provided to the people who were exposed,” Baucus said in a prepared statement. “And for 30 years, no public health emergencies were declared, so the federal government was not obligated to determine the best way to provide that care.”

The Environmental Protection Agency designated the Libby-area Superfund site its first ever public health emergency last year.

A $6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services began providing asbestos screening and health care for former and current Libby-area residents last November, but the money was only intended to last for two years until a more permanent source could be found.

“Once the current money runs out here, this (health-care reform bill) would be a health-care program, an expanded type of Medicare, like the one we developed with the HRSA funds,” said Dr. Brad Black, Lincoln County health officer and director of the Center for Asbestos Related Diseases.

The initial $6 million has helped the county build infrastructure to fulfill health-care requirements of the site’s new status.

“We have a health insurance program already drawn up in case,” Black said. “This would be just a carry over of that – reimbursements that would be pretty generous.”

It’s unclear exactly when Medicare benefits would be expanded to locals if the bill is written into law, as many of the bill’s major features won’t go into effect until as late as 2014.