For all the attention that health care has drawn of late, a new Gallup Poll shows that just 6 percent of Americans consider it the top problem confronting the country.
The 6 percent who mention health care is slightly below the average of 8 percent of Americans who since January 2001 have mentioned it as the nation's top problem.
The June poll found that the economy remains far and away the dominant concern for voters. Sixty-eight percent cited some aspect of the economy when asked about the nation's most important problem, with the economy in general (31 percent) and unemployment (25 percent) most often mentioned as specific concerns.
But the poll showed that health care still remains very much on the public's mind. Gallup in May gave Americans a list of 10 economic issues and asked them to rate the importance of each. Health care topped the list, with 40 percent rating "the cost of health care" as extremely important and another 44 percent saying it was very important, putting it just ahead of unemployment and the federal budget deficit.
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