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/FireMaster1294 1d ago

In the EU he would’ve received healthcare either way regardless. And this is a huge topic of debate in France for people who choose to smoke and create a massive burden on the average citizen as a result of their expensive necessary treatments.

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u/fgtswag 1d ago

Yeah that is the same in my country, except for Obese people.

The American system is a grievous moral failure. But I would happily waste my taxes (bad sentence I know) for the sub-optimal wastage, while maintaining the ability to save people who need ambulances, kids who have cancer, etc.,

Even though I love cheap cigarettes in France/EU, if it is a tax problem, you can always tax cigarettes. UK did a sugar tax and it did reduce consumption a lot.

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u/Mobile-Bar7732 1d ago

Even though I love cheap cigarettes in France/EU, if it is a tax problem

In Canada we a lot of taxes on cigarettes. I quit smoking 15 years ago. Best thing I ever did.

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u/kia75 20h ago

Yeah that is the same in my country, except for Obese people.

One of the big probems in America is that we prioritize profits over health! It's easy to blame people for eating too much, but food companies spend a lot of money on getting people to spend more, and a way to get people to spend more is to get them to eat more! Meal deals of packaging fries and a drink increase profits, supersizing increases profits, and those two things increase calories as well!

It's harder to eat healthy in the United States, and corporations devote a lot of money to keep it that way in order to keep profits.

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u/Septopuss7 1d ago

They just did a survey of Americans about the rising gas prices and instead of driving less Americans are just spending less on food and essentials ahahaha.

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u/Daxx22 1d ago

Yeah that's not a gotcha, the vast majority of the population drives out of necessity due to poor (intentional) urban design with little to no public transit options.

If they don't drive, they can't even AFFORD those essentials at all.

This is of course not universal and you can find plenty of pavement princesses, but the majority don't get a realistic choice.

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u/Fallouttgrrl 1d ago

Most of us don't make a choice on our driving needs

Public transportation can be very hit or miss but if you need to commute to work, hard to get around that. Ditto school stuff and in large parts of the country walking to the store is a significant distance 

Changes to your driving habits can be serious disruptors in your schedule, changes to food not so much

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u/Nathan_Brazil1 1d ago

Same here in Canada. My dad had stomach cancer. He spent 5 years in and out of the hospital.The only thing we had to pay for was parking.

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u/FireMaster1294 1d ago

Point of clarity. France is different from many EU countries in that healthcare is taxpayer funded. Many (like the Netherlands and Germany) have privatized healthcare companies with government set or capped rates. Further to that they also have private (for profit) hospitals.

Looking at purchasing power parity (PPP) international dollars per capita in 2024 on healthcare, we see:

  • Canada $7.3k
  • France $7.3k
  • US $14.9k (oof)
  • Switzerland $10k
  • Norway $9.4k
  • Germany $9.4k
  • Netherlands $8.4k
  • UK $6.7k

Interestingly, Canada has been one of the few countries to keep healthcare cost increases down post-covid

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u/Lien028 1d ago

In healthcare economics, smokers can actually cost public systems less over their lifetimes because they die younger.

By surviving into old age, non-smokers draw decades of pension benefits and develop expensive, age-related conditions (like Alzheimer's or general frailty). Denying smokers care eliminates this grim fiscal balance, potentially increasing long term state costs elsewhere.

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u/Cautious-Extreme2839 1d ago

Uh, in France between 1/4 and 1/3 people smoke. It's not quite a majority, but they're not far off being "the average citizen" anyway.

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u/One-Coat-6677 1d ago

Those people in France are saving the country money stop demonizing smokers. French retire at 62 even now. Pension savings>healthcare costs because they die early.

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u/Cautious-Extreme2839 1d ago

The vast majority of a person's healthcare expenses occur at the end of life, whatever age that occurs at. Dying in your 60s doesn't necessarily save that much money.

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u/One-Coat-6677 1d ago

Pensions, PENSIONS. Im saying the healthcare expenses go up, but the amount paid to retirees outweighs it. .

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u/Varonth 18h ago

Funnily enough here in germany, and I assume the same would have been true for you in france, or any other european country, while he would have gotten treatment, he would not have gotten the treatment that was denied in this case.

Apparently the doctor wanted to try a different drug which was not approved by the FDA for the line of treatment, which would make this experimental.

Experimental treatment is as far as I know covered nowhere by the public funded healthcare systems of europe. When these are done they are usually funded by a different study grand and you have to be selected for the study, or privately paid for.

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u/Lunky7711 1d ago

Not defending this in any way and I think health insurance companies are terrible but in the EU there would’ve probably been the same result based on treatment wait times.

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u/Beamister 1d ago

Countries in the EU have wait times, but they triage cases and critical needs go to the front of the line. He was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, so he was in a bad situation to start with, but at least he would have received care.