A new Gallup poll shows that Americans who have health insurance coverage are more likely to have healthier habits, and are less likely to smoke. It is unclear if having health insurance influences people to make healthier choices, or if the less healthy are unable to afford health insurance.
Gallup is an organization that has been studying human nature and human behavior for over 75 years. To do this, they have employed leading scientists in subjects like management, economics, psychology, and sociology. Gallup is a well respected organization, and the results it finds are considered to be important and newsworthy.
For this particular poll, Gallup interviewed 200,000 adults who were younger than 65 years of age. The poll was conducted between January and October of 2011. 80% of the people who took the poll said that they had health insurance coverage.
Those who were contacted by Gallup for the purposes of this poll were asked a series of questions. They were asked if they smoke. They were asked about if they exercise, and if they eat regular servings of fruits and vegetables.
One of the most interesting results of the poll had to do with smoking. It turned out that 36% of Americans who did not have health insurance were smokers. Only 20% of the people who had health insurance coverage were smokers.
The poll also showed that people who have health insurance tend to eat fruits and vegetables more consistently than did the people who were uninsured. The insured people also were more likely to get exercise on a consistent basis. However, for these two specific health choices, there wasn’t a significant margin between the results from those who had health insurance, and those that lacked it.
So, what does this mean? There are two possibilities. Perhaps what we are seeing is that the people who are focused on their health are naturally more likely to choose healthier habits, (such as eating plenty of produce, and getting a lot of exercise).
It could be that this group of people seeks out health insurance, because of their interest in keeping healthy. Maybe people who smoke, or who make other less than ideal health choices, are just not as interested in seeking out health insurance coverage.
Or, this could be due to something entirely different. Most health insurance companies have started charging higher premiums to people who smoke. That extra cost could be preventing smokers from being able to afford health insurance. Some insurers will no longer cover people who smoke. The result is that people who do have health insurance are going to be less likely to smoke.
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