CRITICAL CONDITION: Senate continues to craft bill

TAMPA, FL -- Thursday, Congresswoman Kathy Castor (D-FL), fresh off the historic House vote to reform health care, held a teleconference with AARP to discuss how the bill will help seniors.

Castor says if the bill makes its way to the President's desk, some improvements for seniors will take effect immediately, like closing the coverage gap for prescription drugs for seniors and getting them better access to primary care doctors.

"We are going to fight like the dickens to keep these important improvements for the health of our seniors in the final work product as it makes its way through the Senate," Castor says.

Meanwhile, the newly appointed Republican Senator George LeMeiux (R-FL) says he's not buying the math and he doesn't understand how trimming Medicare will help seniors.

"These seniors worked hard their whole life to pay into Medicare and they expect to get money out. So, its seems like funny Washington math to me that we can take a half trillion dollars, $500 billion, out of Medicare to pay for a new program and still have Medicare work for our seniors," LeMeiux says.

Senator LeMeiux also pointed out that he hasn't seen a finalized version of the Senate's health care reform bill yet. Senate Democrats are still working it out, for the most part behind closed doors.

However, LeMeiux says he hopes to see something by the end of the week.