Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) said Sunday that he "probably wouldn't be here" if he had been insured under the Affordable Care Act, referring to his emergency quadruple bypass surgery earlier this month.
In a radio interview with WABC's Aaron Klein, Inhofe said his doctors discovered multiple blocked arteries during a colonoscopy and that he needed surgery immediately.
The senator said he was able to be treated right away because of his health care plan, but under a program like the Affordable Care Act, Inhofe said "with my age, that would have been about a six-month wait" because he did not have a heart attack.
"It's amazing. The people in any of these countries that have socialized medicine like Obama's trying to impose on America — the single pay, and we know that's what he's trying to do — should listen carefully," Inhofe said. "Let's hold on to what we've got here. You're talking to someone right now who probably wouldn't be here if we had socialized medicine in America."
Inhofe, who has served in the Senate since 1995, is an ardent opponent of President Barack Obama's signature health care reform law. Prior to the government shutdown that ended last week, he voted against a continuing resolution to fund the government because it did not defund the health care law.
“Today I kept my promise to Oklahomans that I would not vote for a continuing resolution that funds the President's disastrous health care law," Inhofe said in a statement on the September vote. "I will continue to work with my colleagues in Congress and do whatever it takes to fight for ObamaCare to be defunded and repealed."
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