AUGUSTA – Proponents say close to 20,000 people could benefit from a revised bill to expand health coverage for uninsured Mainers that was enacted by lawmakers before the adjournment of this year’s legislative session.

The measure was scaled back and approved after Gov. Angus King said he had concerns about the costs of the original proposal.

With King’s blessing, the amended proposal championed by House Speaker Michael Saxl was given final approval Thursday night in the House, 80-34, and in the Senate, 27-6.

Funded by a 6-cents-a-pack increase in the cigarette tax, the measure offers Medicaid eligibility to childless adults without insurance whose income does not exceed the federal poverty level of $8,590.

The eligibility threshold would rise to 125 percent of the federal poverty level if sufficient funds are available.

Legislative analysts estimate that the higher cigarette levy, effective Oct. 1, would raise $5.6 million in a year. Of that amount, about $1.5 million would be set aside as a hedge against future cost increases in the program.

An earlier version of Saxl’s bill carried a general fund price tag of nearly $16 million, funded both by the cigarette tax hike and a proposed repeal of the law allowing the carry-back of net operating losses by businesses.

The version enacted by the House and Senate late Thursday scrapped the tax law repeal.

The 6-cents-a-pack increase in the cigarette tax for the health coverage plan coincides with a 20-cents-a-pack increase in the same tax contained in the supplemental state budget enacted on Wednesday.

Together, the two increases will bring Maine’s levy on cigarettes to $1 a pack.