Government healthcare: 1 in 4 U.S. adults

WASHINGTON, April 7 (UPI) -- Almost 26 percent of U.S. adults get their healthcare coverage from Medicare, Medicaid and or military/veterans' benefits, a Gallup poll indicates.

Since the 2008 economic collapse, in the first three months of 2011, 25.7 percent of all Americans said they have government health insurance -- about the same since the 25.3 percent in 2010, but up from 24.6 percent in 2009 and 23.4 percent in 2008, the Gallup poll indicates.

The data collected from the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index indicates government health insurance has increased among all age groups -- one in 10 American adults has government healthcare -- not just seniors, which suggests the rise in the government rolls is tied more to joblessness than aging baby boomers.

Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index conducted telephone interviews Jan. 2 to March 31 of a random sample of 52,144 U.S. adults in all 50 states.

Three-fourths of seniors get their healthcare from a government plan, as do the least educated and those with the lowest incomes -- overlapping groups, Gallup says.

Non-seniors with income of $36,000 per year are among the most likely to have government care, while 9.1 percent of those who make $36,000 to $74,999 per year have government coverage, as do 6.6 percent of those in the highest income group, the survey indicates.

The margin of error is 1 percentage point.