Gallup: Healthcare, immigration down as problems in U.S.

Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Immigration and healthcare have declined as problems facing the United States since the mid-term elections, according to a Gallup survey.

In the first poll after Nov. 6 voting, 16 percent listed immigration as the top problem, which is down from 21 percent the previous month. Healthcare declined from 11 percent to 5 percent in a three-way tie for sixth place with environment-pollution and "lack of respect for each other."

Immigration was the No. 1 problem in November, but now it is second behind government, which is at 19 percent, a 1 percentage point drop.

After the election, "unifying the country" is No. 3 at 8 percent compared with 6 percent in November, followed by race relations at 7 percent from 6 percent and poverty-hunger-homelessness at 5 percent from 2 percent.

The survey of 1,025 adults 18 and older was conducted Dec. 3-12.

"As another potential partial shutdown of the federal government approaches, government is again mostly likely to be cited by Americans as the most important problem facing the country," Gallup's RJ Reinhart said. "However, the current level noting government dissatisfaction is still below the 25 percent who cited the issue in January of this year, a few weeks prior to the last time the federal government faced a shutdown."

That shutdown ended after three days.

In October 2013 during a partial shutdown of the federal government, the government problems listing hit an all-time high of 33 percent.

Before the midterm elections, 37 percent of Republicans cited immigration as the country's top problem in November, up 17 percentage points from October. After the election, as the migrant caravan in Central American became less prominent, the problem declined to 29 percent among GOP respondents.

Respondents listing healthcare as the top problem have declined across party lines.

Three percent of Republicans cited the issue, which is 8 percent down from last month. And 8 percent of Democrats mentioned healthcare compared to 12 percent in November. Among the independents, it is now 5 percent vs. 12 percent in November.

Satisfaction with the way things are going came in at 31 percent currently compared with 35 percent last month. The average is 34 percent throughout 2018 and above the average 27 percent from 2015 through 2017.

Broken down politically, 59 percent of Republicans say they are satisfied, down from 63 percent last month. Among independents, satisfaction fell to 34 from 37 percent. With Democrats, it stayed steady at 8 percent.