Scott Allan's World

I read an article today about how challenging it can be to treat a “VIP” patient such as Ted Kennedy. The article also refers to actors as VIP patients. I object to the term VIP. VIP is such an elitist term. What makes Ted Kennedy “more important” than the rest of us? Our government is supposed to be “of the people and by the people” which should make Senator Kennedy an equal, not special. If anything we should lower politicians to the level of cockroach instead.

Now I would have no objection to saying he is a “high profile” patient, but Very Important? What gives Senator Kennedy any special rights and priveleges to health care and attention that the rest of us are not entitled to? If the answer was that it’s because he is a VRP (very rich person), well I can understand that, but simply the notion of being famous because you’re a Senator or an actor or an athlete should not make doctors go all ga-ga. I understand the press finds his story compelling, but doctors should be obligated to give everyone the best care possible. The mere fact that he is able to win election after election does not make him “more valuable” than us. When are we going to stop worshipping these people as gods and realize they only have power because we give it to them. We enable their elitist nature and pump up their massive egos until they believe they know better than we do. This is the cause of the nanny state. We defer all our decision making to the wise sages we see television because we are enamored by their presence.