21.   The administration has been arguing for years that organs should be shared broadly throughout the country, with the sickest patients generally given priority.

22.   The expense of handling the sickest patients is expected to be balanced by the financial gains from handling those who need little more than periodic physicals.

23.   The goal of the law was to give patients more choices in their coverage while spreading around the financial burden of insuring the sickest patients.

24.   The guidelines call for sharing organs nationally, with the sickest patients receiving the highest priority.

25.   The sickest patients would be first in line for transplants, followed by those less sick on waiting lists here.

26.   The sickest patients?

27.   The United Network for Organ Sharing had always reasoned that the sickest patients should have top priority.

28.   They predicted many smaller agencies will shut down or just refuse to take the sickest patients.

29.   To receive the bonuses, the hospitals will also have to hire physicians who specialize in intensive care to supervise their sickest patients.

30.   Top-notch, technological care is still essential to save the sickest patients, and hospitals will remain places of life-and-death dramas.