Americans say health care access is the nation's most urgent health problem, according to a new Gallup poll. That's followed closely by the cost of health care and obesity.

About a quarter (23 percent) cited access to health care as the most urgent health problem, while 19 percent said cost and 16 percent said obesity. The number of people citing obesity is at an all-time high. In 1999, just 1 percent of Americans cited obesity.

Increasing concerns about obesity mirror the rising rates of the issue in the United States. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the percentage of adults who are obese doubled from 1980 to 2008. And Gallup and Healthways find obesity remains high as of the third quarter of 2012, at 26 percent.

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