Florida Senate plan would cut programs for medically needy

Health programs serving Florida's poor, elderly and critically ill face a staggering $803 million in cuts under a Senate plan aimed at helping to close a $3 billion state budget shortfall. As many as 24,000 low-income seniors and disabled Floridians would lose coverage under the proposed elimination of the state's costly Meds AD insurance program. Another 16,000 seriously ill adults, including many recent transplant patients, also would lose state assistance from the Medically Needy program under proposed reductions that left Senate budget-writers shaking their heads.