Whenever I tell people...

...that the recently passed health care bill was really a very moderate, centrist, even -- gasp! -- Republican one, I usually get funny looks, especially from the Fox News-watching, Wall Street Journal-reading crowd.

"Oh, you mean Mitt Romney's bill in Massachusetts," they often say. (I can practically see the thought bubbles over their heads: "Well, after all, he's a moderate," as if that's just another word for Communist.)

No, what I'm really referring to is the Republican health care plan of 1993 -- the GOP response to the Clinton plan. The one that, like the current plan, would have required individuals to purchase health insurance; would have required employers to offer insurance to their employees; would have set a standard benefits package; would have banned denying coverage for pre-existing conditions; would have established state-based exchanges, or purchasing groups; would have offered subsidies for low-income people to buy insurance; would have provided for long-term care insurance; would have reduced the growth in Medicare spending; would have placed controls on high cost health plans; would have prohibited insurance companies from canceling coverage (you know, when you're sick and you actually need it); and would have seen that upwards of 90% of Americans were covered. That plan.

(And don't even get me started on Nixon's plan.)

When you compare the two, the Republican plan from 1993 sure seems a lot like the one the Democrats just passed. That's right, the one that Rupert Murdoch-land keeps calling "radical" or "socialist." (How come I never here the words "centrist" or "Republican?")

Were the two plans identical? Of course not. The current plan provides for an expansion of Medicaid; didn't tackle the issue of medical malpractice reform; prohibits insurers from setting lifetime spending caps; didn't equalize the tax treatment for insurance of the self-employed; and extended coverage to dependents up to the age of 26.

Are any of these deal-breakers? Hardly. All the Republicans had to do was join in the process and, well, negotiate. Instead, the GOP chose to just say "no" and hope for failure.

So the next time you hear someone say that the health care bill is part of Obama's radical agenda, or some such silliness, ask them if that's really true. Really?