To address these concerns, we devised survey questions specifi -
cally designed to elicit the expressed willingness to pay among the
uninsured for a comprehensive health plan. Existing data on the
uninsured are generally limited in part because many respondents
must be screened in order to yield a sample of uninsured people
large enough to generate precise estimates, given that more than 80
percent of Americans are covered by some formof health insurance.
Fortunately, for a two-week period during the summer of 2008,
the Gallup Poll included our questions in their ongoing survey of
1000 individuals a day. We asked respondents whether they would