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Room for compromise on health care?

While Americans are evenly divided on whether they support federal health care legislation, a Kaiser Family Foundation tracking poll conducted February 11 through February 16, 2010 found agreement among Democrats, Republicans and independents for various parts of the legislation.

Overall, the poll found 43 percent in favor and 43 percent opposed the health care bills. But majorities of Americans of all political affiliations support several provisions of the health care proposals in Congress and most say that politics rather than policy is responsible for delays in enacting the legislation.

At least 60 percent of Republicans, Democrats and independents agree that the legislation should include health insurance reforms, tax credits for small businesses, expanding the insurance risk pool, creating health insurance exchanges, and closing the so-called Medicare "doughnut" hole.

Those areas of agreement could provide a starting point for Thursday's health care summit of Democrats and Republicans in Washington, D.C.

The California-based foundation polled nationally representative random sample of 1,201 adults ages 18 and older and was conducted through phone interviews with people on both landlines (800) and cell phones (401).

The tracking poll findings and participants' detailed answers are available from the Kaiser Family Foundation.