S., now cited by 32%. At 18%, the cost of healthcare is also widely mentioned, but to a lesser degree than it was a year ago. As a result, after many years when healthcare costs ranked as the bigger top-of-mind health problem, access now leads costs by 14 points, its widest margin. Gallup first asked Americans to name the "most urgent health problem facing this country at the present time" in 1987, and has repeated the question annually since 1999. The latest findings come from Gallup's 2009 installment of its annual Health and Healthcare poll, conducted Nov. 5-8. (Gallup 2014).
Full-time, full-year employment offers families the best chances of acquiring and keeping health insurance, as does an annual income of at least a moderate level (greater than 200 percent of the federal poverty level. Insured status correlates highly with many aspects of employment, including work status, income level, educational attainment, occupation, and employer characteristics such as firm size and employment sector. (National Academies Press 2001).
Two-thirds of all uninsured persons are members of lower-income families (earning less than 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Level. One-third of all members of lower-income families are uninsured. There are uninsured people at all income levels, although members of families earning less than 200 percent of FPL are twice as likely to be uninsured as are members of the general population under age 6 (National Academies Press 2001).
Most uninsured people are U.S. citizens by birth (native-born residents comprise about 90 percent of the general population). The relatively small proportion of the general population comprised of naturalized citizens and noncitizens (immigrants) is significantly more likely than U.S.-born residents to be uninsured, although immigrants uninsured rates decline with increasing length of residency in the United.
Obamacare has been the leading solution to this problem.
