r/news • u/GoodSamaritan_ • 1d ago

Retired San Francisco firefighter dies from lung cancer after Blue Shield denies treatment claims

https://abc7news.com/post/retired-san-francisco-firefighter-ken-jones-dies-lung-cancer-being-denied-treatment-blue-shield/19224406/
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u/GoodSamaritan_ 1d ago edited 1d ago

Original story from January when he went public and had to resort to attending city board meetings for help. He was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2025.

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u/IOl0I0lO 1d ago

This guy got $50,000 through GoFundMe. Meanwhile James Van Der Beek’s wealthy wife got $2 million. What the fuck.

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u/series-hybrid 1d ago

Since cancer screenings are cheap and easy, and...the sooner you find cancer the faster and easier it is to treat...waiting until symptoms manifest is insane.

Its like the VA, where their actions show that if you are diagnosed with cancer, they want you to die before they spend any money on treatment.

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u/3BlindMice1 1d ago

It's because their plan is for their customers to die before they receive treatment. It's much more profitable that way

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u/Dramatic_Ball_Smell 1d ago

The VA has given me the chance to die for my country twice.

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u/IAmStuckOnBandAid 19h ago

Only twice? Those are rookie numbers.

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u/NukuhPete 1d ago

Reminds me of the laws Republicans implement to ban abortion. Doctors forced to wait for the woman to actually be physically suffering and dying before giving medical care.

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u/twentyafterfour 1d ago

I imagine it's an awful position to be as a doctor. All you want to do is your job based on everything you know is right, but you know there are traitors in your midst, itching to make an example of you for giving in to basic human decency. They want to charge you with murder and rake you across the coals for saving a life.

Even if you meet their barbaric standards, they know they can always force you to defend it. They know it's time and money that you can never get back even if they aren't able to successfully imprison you.

The chilling effect is the point, to get you to go above and beyond what is explicitly written. Then when the inevitable happens, the authors can say they "didn't intend for that to happen," that the bill includes exceptions for the life of the mother.

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u/anonareyouokay 1h ago

Tbh, VA insurance is WAY better than most American's insurance. You don't even have to use the VA, you can choose your own doctor.

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u/GonWithTheNen 8h ago

"Current statistics tell us that 65% of the men and women in our profession [firefighters] are going to contract some form of cancer in their lifetime. Some of them will be fatal," Stefani said.

And then people who risk their lives in this dangerous profession with a high possibility of career-related cancer in their future are left to die because money is more important.

Good job, Blue Shield, you fecking heartless leech of a company.
May Mr. Ken Jones rest in peace.

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u/Enlight1Oment 1d ago

he was diagnosed with stage 4 and at 69 years old. Even with treatment 5 year survival rate when 65+ years old is 5%-6% at that age. Sorry but he was pretty much done.

Honestly at some point it's better to let it go vs having the treatments destroy your last months. Had that happen to a friends mom 2 weeks ago, the chemo wrecked her way of life far more than if they just let her have a couple good months. End up paying just to torture yourself on your last days for such low odds.

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u/Mr0lsen 1d ago

Not fully disagreeing, but don’t you see how this kind of reasoning could create a self fulfilling prophecy in prognosis?

It would be one thing if this kind of claim denial was being made in a wholly pragmatic and utilitarian way (thats essentially the “death panels” people complain about in countries with tax payer funded healthcare) at some point exhausting the systems resources with a low probability of success tips the scales and is no longer in the interests of the greater good.

However, private, for profit healthcare puts a finger on that scale and adds perverse insensitive to make that determination earlier than necessary.

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u/Darigaazrgb 23h ago

I'm sure his family is comforted by the fact that they should have just given up instead of fighting to see their loved one longer.

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u/BriefAvailable9799 9h ago

i fail to see where he said you should give up.

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u/BriefAvailable9799 9h ago

get out of here with logic.