PORTLAND — The tobacco industry used its financial muscle to buy lobbyists and crush a bill that could have led to the recovery of millions of dollars in smoking-related Medicaid expenses, according to a new report.

In the past two years, Maine lobbyists were paid close to $250,000 by the tobacco industry to gain access to legislators and defeat the bill introduced in February 1995, according to the report by the nonprofit Money and Politics Project.

Meanwhile, the American Lung Association and the American Cancer Society paid lobbyists just $10,000 during the same period, Robert Collins, author of the report, said Wednesday.

The legislation would have enabled the Maine commissioner of Human Services to join eight other states in suing the tobacco industry to recover smoking-related Medicaid costs. It also would have provided funds to support clinics to help Maine smokers kick the habit.

About 24 percent of the population in Maine smokes — higher than the national average — costing the state close to $200 million a year in medical expenses, according to the Maine Bureau of Health and the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. State officials say the indirect costs from smoking, such as lost wages and higher insurance premiums, may also add up to hundreds of millions of dollars.

After the bill was introduced by Rep. Elizabeth Townsend, D-Portland, the tobacco industry deployed a team of state and national lobbyists to influence opinion, according to the report, “Cashing In: Tobacco Smokes the Opposition.”

When the bill came up for a vote, it was soundly defeated by both the House and Senate. “The issue was hardly contested at all,” Collins said. “It was a slam dunk.”

But Jon Doyle, an Augusta lawyer who has received $119,500 in the past two years from R.J. Reynolds, dismissed the report. “Issues get decided on their merit,” Doyle said. “It is particularly popular in some cases to bash the tobacco industry and equally popular to decide that the money did it.