Poll: Healthcare access top issue

PRINCETON, N.J., Nov. 23 (UPI) -- Access to healthcare leads the list of issues Americans named as the "most urgent health problem" in the United States, Gallup Poll results indicated.

Thirty-two percent of Americans listed access as the most critical concern, results released Monday showed. Listed second was healthcare costs, at 18 percent.

Against a backdrop of an H1N1 flu pandemic, Americans' mentions of flu as the nation's most urgent health problem was 16 percent, up from minimal percentages citing during the last several years, the Princeton, N.J., polling agency said.

Gallup said it first asked Americans to list the "most urgent health problem facing this country at the present time" in 1987, and repeated the poll annually since 1999.

Results are based on nationwide telephone interviews with 1,008 adults conducted Nov. 5-8. The margin of error is 4 percentage points.