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A total of 52,228 Marylanders have been insured since the bill passed, boosting the state to 16th in the nation for adult health care coverage, climbing up from 44th place in January 2007. The expansion was funded in large part by steady increases to the tax on cigarettes in the state, generating up to $144 million per year, according to champions of the bill and health care advocates who met at the Washington Adventist Hospital Dec. 16.

While all of the speakers at the hospital praised the overall boost in coverage, many of those present, including Maryland Citizens' Health Initiative President Vincent DeMarco, were quick to point out the benefits the law imparted to low-income residents.

"Before this law took effect , the parents in a family were only eligible for [state-funded] health care up to 40 percent of the poverty level, which, for a family of four, is up to $8,000," he said. "Now, after getting this law passed, parents are eligible up to 120 percent."

Others, like Maryland State Del. Heather Mizeur, (D-Dist. 20) of Silver Spring, tempered their excitement for the law's success by looking forward.

"We want to get to a point where we're not just covering another 50,000 here and 40,000 there," she said. "We've got 700,000 people in the state with no health insurance; ... none of us are going to be happy until those numbers get down to zero."

She mentioned her efforts to keep more young adults on their family health plans longer, specifically as a means to maintain and expand on coverage rates for youth while also lowering premium costs for other families.

Maryland State Sen. Jennie M. Forehand, (D-Dist. 17) of Rockville, addressed the significant increase in cigarette taxes that helped ensure Maryland's current progress. She has been a champion of reducing smoking since taking office in 1995 and previously in the state house of delegates.

"It's indescribable; it makes us proud of what the legislature has done and for having had a hand in that," she said of her involvement in getting the increase passed. "I think the public really likes the no-smoking laws that we have."

The tax on a pack of cigarettes increased from 36 cents to 66 cents in 1999 before increasing by $1 in 2002 and finally to $2 in 2007, widely believed to have contributed to the 74 million fewer packs of cigarettes sold statewide the following year, according to DeMarco and Forehand.

Marylanders who want to know if they are eligible for expanded health care under the Governor's Working Families and Small Business Health Care Coverage Act of 2007 are encouraged to call 211 to speak with a specialist to find out more about the act and to apply.