Maryland Citizens Health Initiative is refueling for the next phase of its campaign for universal health insurance in the state with the announcement yesterday that it is receiving a three-year, $250,000-a-year grant.

The money comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a health-focused grant-maker in New Jersey. It is part of a $15 million, 12-state effort called Consumer Voices for Coverage.

"The purpose of this program is to strengthen advocacy efforts in states to expand health coverage," said Lori Grubstein, program officer for the foundation.

Vincent DeMarco, president of the Maryland group, said his organization is currently revising its 2002 "health care for all" plan and will use the grant for "coalition building."

That will mean the hiring of five to 10 organizers, supplementing the current staff of four, to seek support from community, religious and labor groups around the state.

Formed in 1999, the initiative developed its first universal coverage plan in 2002 and persuaded about 2,000 community groups to be supporters. The initiative has been operating on a budget of about $500,000 a year, mostly grants from local and national foundations, DeMarco said.

Parts of the 2002 plan have been enacted. This past winter's legislative special session approved a Medicaid expansion to cover more low-income adults starting in July and set up a program to provide financial help to small employers who haven't been able to offer health coverage to their workers.

For the next several months, DeMarco's organization will work to enroll people newly eligible for Medicaid (those who make up to 116 percent of the federal poverty level, or $24,492 for a family of four). Although about 250,000 of the state's 750,000 uninsured will be eligible for Medicaid coverage, the state expects only about half of them to sign up, DeMarco said.

Another piece of the initiative's 2002 plan, the so-called Wal-Mart bill, requiring large employers to offer adequate coverage or pay a fee to the state, was enacted in 2006 only to be blocked by a federal court.

With the Medicaid expansion in place, DeMarco said the plan would likely focus on how to reach 500,000 or so uninsured Marylanders who are not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid but can't afford health insurance, which costs about $10,000 a year for family coverage. He said the revised plan should be ready by May.

bill.salganik@baltsun.com