TALLAHASSEE -- Florida's legislators will vote Thursday on two plans to close the state's $2.3 billion deficit by slashing programs that, some hospital officials say, could set off a statewide healthcare system crisis.

The Senate Ways and Means Committee debates the Senate budget plan in the morning and the full House votes out its version in the afternoon. The two versions slash spending on everything from schools, roads and affordable housing to healthcare and will be merged into a final $63 billion budget next week.

Hardest hit will be Florida's healthcare system. After weathering back-to-back budget cuts for years, hospitals now face another $137 million reduction. The cuts could jeopardize the state's healthcare system and force the closure of some facilities, according to hospital officials and the senator in charge of negotiating the cuts.

''I don't think the hospital system can take any more,'' said Republican Sen. Durell Peaden, a Crestview doctor who heads the Senate health budget committee.

''After this year,'' he said, ``you could see some closures if there are more cuts, especially with rural hospitals.''

Already, Alachua General Hospital plans to close its doors in the Gainesville area next November, and advocates fear that two state children's hospitals are also at risk.

Miami Children's Hospital faces a $5 million cut and All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg is bracing for a $4.5 million reduction, according to an analysis by the Florida Hospital Association and the Safety Net Hospital Alliance of Florida.

About two-thirds of the children's hospital money comes from Medicaid, a state-federal health insurance program that the Legislature is cutting to fill a $2.4 billion budget hole during the special lawmaking session that ends next week.

The hospital cuts won't go into effect until spring, when legislators return for the regular lawmaking session to hash out next year's budget. That budget already has a projected deficit of about $4 billion.

The likely outcome: more reductions. Hospitals -- as well as nursing homes and Medicaid HMOs -- say they can't take much more. If the most recent round of cuts is approved, hospital reimbursement rates will have been slashed by a cumulative 12.6 percent after 18 months of budget cuts.

''The children's hospitals are facing serious problems,'' said Tony Carvalho, who lobbies for the Safety Net Alliance, which represents the children's hospitals and other charity-care facilities from Tampa Bay to South Florida. ``I don't want to say they're facing closures. But this is serious.''

The hospitals' budget numbers differ slightly from legislative figures because they include the impact of Medicaid HMO cuts and other complicated rate reimbursement calculations.

Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe hospitals face respective cuts of $37 million, $12 million and $342,000.

House lawmakers signed off on the cuts Wednesday when they approved about $1 billion in budget reductions affecting everything from roads to schools to healthcare to affordable housing.

The full House votes on its budget Thursday, when the Senate's full budget committee takes up its proposal, which includes an unexpected cut of $20 million for the Florida Forever land-buying program.

As they have in committees, Democrats will likely vote against the Republican budget proposals, which seek to avoid tax increases.

House lawmakers Wednesday also emptied savings accounts and tentatively signed off on gutting the Lawton Chiles Endowment, an annuity that funds healthcare for seniors and children. In the House, lawmakers agreed to transfer about $400 million from the fund and then another $600 million if need be. The fund has just $1.1 billion left.

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