Concern over the national healthcare system is rising, according to a recent Gallup poll.
The latest Gallup poll, which found 18 percent of Americans believe healthcare is the biggest problem facing the country, was administered May 3-7 amid the House vote on the American Health Care Act. About a quarter (24 percent) of Democrats rate healthcare as the most important problem, compared to 17 percent of Republicans.
This rate represents the highest percentage mentioning healthcare since November 2013, on the heels of the issue-riddled rollout of the ACA exchanges. The same rate (18 percent) of survey respondents said "dissatisfaction with government/poor leadership," was America's biggest problem, according to the poll.
The percentage of Americans who named healthcare as the nation's biggest problem rose to 26 percent in August/September of 2009 amid a series of angry town hall meetings around the U.S. regarding the ACA. That rate dropped to an average of 20 percent from August 2009 through March 2010, when President Barack Obama signed the ACA into law, according to Gallup. After that, fewer Americans pointed to healthcare as the country's biggest problem until the disastrous rollout of the exchanges in fall 2013, when 19 percent of Americans cited healthcare as the biggest problem.
Prior to the ACA era, Americans' concerns over healthcare were highest in the mid-1990s during the Hillary Clinton-led push for universal healthcare, peaking at 31 percent in January 1994.