The House's health budget chief, Republican Marcelo Llorente, of Miami, pointed out that legislators plan to reimburse the Chiles fund if the state receives federal stimulus money sometime this spring.

''We're trying to protect the fund and help all Floridians,'' Llorente said. ``These are tough times.''

But the son of former Gov. Chiles, Bud Chiles, said he takes no comfort from the legislators' assurances.

''They're like deer in the headlights. They're frozen. But they won't do the right thing,'' said Chiles, who supports raising cigarette taxes and closing sales-tax exemptions. He has threatened to sue the state if it empties the fund named for his father.

Chiles' fellow Democrats wanted what they call ''revenue increases'' to be considered during this special legislative session, but Republicans refused, saying it's a bad time to even discuss raising taxes.

Democrats pointed out an irony in the Republicans' insistence on fiscal discipline: The conservatives inveigh against spending, but they're banking on Democrat Barack Obama and a Democratic Congress to bail out the state with a stimulus package once he is president.

Lawmakers also hope the Obama administration changes the amount of federal matching money the state receives through the Medicaid program. The feds provide about 55 cents for every 45 cents paid by the state.

In the Senate, the health budget committee reduced one of its biggest cuts to nursing homes by allowing operators of the homes to impose a fee on their facilities that could be used to draw down more Medicaid money. The more conservative House has yet to take up the measure, in part because of concerns that the fee is a tax.

The number of Medicaid patients, meanwhile, is soaring to 2.3 million Floridians -- 100,000 more than forecast -- and nearly 1 in 10 Floridians has requested food stamps. Florida is not only the nation's top food stamp-request state, it leads the country in job loss. As a result, more people have lost employer-sponsored health insurance.

All of it means hospital emergency rooms are likely to become busier at the very time they have less money.

''People are going to get sicker quicker,'' said Sen. Peaden, noting that more people are eating less, are more stressed out and are without work. Asked what the future holds for hospitals if lawmakers keep cutting, Peaden answered: ``I don't know.''

The situation is a particularly tough for one of the nation's largest Medicaid providers, Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital, which saw 243,000 Medicaid patients last year. It faces a $20 million cut, but hospital spokeswoman Jeanette Nunez said Jackson, which also relies on local sales tax money, has been slashing costs in anticipation of the hard times.

''There's going to come a point in time where we don't have a place to go,'' she said. ``Are we there yet? I wouldn't say that. But we're getting close.''

Herald/Times staff writer Jennifer Liberto contributed to this report. Marc Caputo can be reached at mcaputo@MiamiHerald.com

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