COVID remains top health care issue for many Americans

A year ago, Americans were optimistic that the pandemic would stop being a major news story by this time. That has not turned out to be the case, however.

Nearly half of U.S. adults named viruses as the country’s top health problem, with the vast majority of these (45%) specifically mentioning COVID-19 or the coronavirus, according to a recent Gallup poll. This figure was down from 69% in November 2020.

As mentions of the coronavirus have declined over the past year, the percentages citing health care access and cost have increased, although neither has returned to its pre-pandemic level. Gallup’s most recent survey that included this question was in November 2018.

• 11% now name health care access, up from 4% in 2020 and 22% in 2018.
• Even fewer adults today (9%) mention the cost of health care more frequently than access. This also is up from 4% in 2020 and 25% in 2018.
• Mentions of obesity have been fairly steady in recent years — 5% name it today, similar to 4% in 2020 and 7% in 2018. The percentage citing obesity had been in double digits in most years from 2007 to 2015 before waning.
• Mentions of cancer remain at a record low of 3% after dipping to 4% last year. Previously, cancer consistently ranked among the top four health problems, usually registering at least 10% and reaching a high of 23% in 1999.
• Immunization is cited by 6% of all U.S. adults as the most urgent health problem.

The decline in those naming COVID-19 or viruses generally as the nation’s top health problem has occurred across society, seen about equally among men, women and all age groups. It also has declined among all major political party groups, although more sharply among Democrats and independents, who were far more likely to name it last year, than among Republicans.

Only one illness besides COVID-19 has ever ranked as Americans’ top concern about health problems facing the country. That was AIDS, named by 62% in Gallup’s inaugural asking of this measure in 1987.

“Even before the omicron variant emerged as a potential threat to recent progress in the nation’s recovery from the pandemic, COVID-19 was still Americans’ primary health concern,” researchers said. “Only AIDS in the late 1980s and early 1990s received a higher percentage of mentions than COVID-19 does today. Whether concern about the virus plummets further next year or trails off slowly, as concern about AIDS did in the 1990s, may depend on how effective vaccines and medical treatments are at keeping up with new variants and allowing the country, if not the world, to return to its pre-pandemic normal.” ###