No Patient Left Behind

We've all read about big companies like General Motors worrying about health care costs and their deadly effect on the bottom line. And we've all heard about how middle-class workers -- self employed or working for a small business -- are priced out of the health insurance market. And how, of course, the working poor haven't got a shot at paying the health care bill.

But now comes this new revelation: The wealthy are worried, too. A survey by PNC Financial Services Group found that one-third of the almost 1,500 respondents -- all wealthy workers or retirees -- were concerned that health care costs would consume a significant percentage of their financial assets.

The survey's respondents included workers with incomes of at least $150,000 and investable assets of at least $500,000, as well as of retirees with at least $1 million in assets. 200 of the respondents had more than $5 million in assets, and 116 had more than $10 million in assets.

All of which suggests an almost-perfect convergence on concerns about health care costs -- since, in addition to corporations, the poor, the middle-class, and now the wealthy, it's certainly a problem on the minds of state and local officials.