Number of Americans in excellent or good health has declined

The New York Times reports on health in the U.S. "The percentage of people who reported having excellent or very good health declined to 66.6 percent in the 2009 period, from 69.1 percent in 1998. Americans report that they have been exercising more. Nevertheless, more than a quarter were obese in 2009 (with a body mass index of 30 or more), up from 19.5 percent in 1997." The report also looks at the prevalence of Type-2 diabetes, alcohol consumption, HIV, flu and asthma and finds that "almost 15 percent of Americans had no health insurance and no regular place to go for medical care" (Bakalar, 1/25).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.