Buried in the deal-clinching health care package that Senate Democrats unveiled over the weekend is an inconspicuous proposal expanding Medicare to cover certain victims of “environmental health hazards.”The intended beneficiaries are identified in a cryptic, mysterious way: individuals exposed to environmental health hazards recognized as a public health emergency in a declaration issued by the federal government on June 17, 2009.
And who might those individuals be? It turns out they are people exposed to asbestos from a vermiculite mine in Libby, Mont.
The bill (page 198) gives authority to the Commissioner of Social Security to determine exactly who is entitled to this benefit. I think that the bill extends Medicare to this group for screening purposes only (see page 207) but the language is opaque.
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