On Friday, as many as three Miami-Dade hospitals stepped forward to collectively provide a month's worth of care and assistance to nearly 40 dialysis patients who had been abandoned by Jackson Health System. Experts are now of the opinion that the Jackson case continues to be a primary example of the growing national problem of life-or-death economic choices that will only go worse than now without the required changes in healthcare.

"This has been crescendo-ing for at least a decade. It's a perfect example of what happens to the uninsured who are desperately ill", said Richard Goldman, a New Mexico nephrologist who is a spokesman for the American Association of Kidney Patients.

The three hospitals which have joined hands for the noble cause are Baptist Health South Florida, the University of Miami Hospital and Mercy Hospital, and these will be providing a month's worth of funds for all the patients that Jackson has suddenly cut out and are not covered anymore.

Also, the South Florida Hospital Association is now looking at some longer-term solution, but paying for the expensive procedure of dialysis is definitely a problem, both locally and countrywide.

"This is a problem all around the country", said Leslie Spry, a kidney specialist in Lincoln, Neb., who is a spokesman for the National Kidney Foundation.