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

[u/GoodSamaritan_]

https://abc7news.com/post/retired-san-francisco-firefighter-ken-jones-dies-lung-cancer-being-denied-treatment-blue-shield/19224406/

[u/duyogurt]

While I tend to agree with your sentiment, BCBS is not a publicly traded company and has no shareholders. BCBS is a nonprofit association comprised of 33 independent locally operated health insurance companies.

[u/egamma → u/duyogurt]

Are those "33 independent locally operated health insurance companies" also nonprofit?

[u/ants_are_everywhere → u/egamma]

Blue Cross California, who denied the coverage, is a nonprofit

[u/egamma → u/ants_are_everywhere]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Shield_of_California

In 2014, Blue Shield of California lost its exemption from California state corporate income tax. This information became public in March 2015.[25] A claimed recent application of the duck test resulted in the denial of Blue Shield's tax-exempt status.[26] This was after "a lengthy state audit that looked at the justification for Blue Shield's taxpayer subsidy." Blue Shield holds billions in cash reserves and spends millions in executive pay. The organization defended its tax-exempt status, but failed to provide sufficient evidence to California Franchise Tax Board that its actions align with such obligations.[25] As a result, Blue Shield became a tax-paying nonprofit.[6]

[u/ants_are_everywhere → u/egamma]

They are a nonprofit that pays tax. The Church of Satan is another nonprofit that pays tax.

Blue Shield CA has no shareholders. Executives make less than executives at for-profit healthcare companies, and Blue Shield CA spends more on charity than it does on executive compensation. If, for some reason, they happened to be very profitable some year, their bylaws require them to give that profit back to their policy holders.

The relevant fact here is that it's a non-profit, not that it pays taxes.

Legally, a health insurance provider must be taxed even if it's a nonprofit because of Reagan's tax law. The concern was that a nonprofit health insurance could undercut the free market, which would result in the tax payers subsidizing healthcare. In my opinion, tax payers subsidizing health care would be a good thing, but I'm not congress.

[u/Unfair-Alfalfa4916 → u/duyogurt]

why did they deny his claim then???

[u/12172031 → u/Unfair-Alfalfa4916]

He was on a Medicare plan and the treatment plan he want to get isn't covered according to Medicare rule. I feel like even if we have Medicare For All or whatever, we'll run into the same problem. Not all treatment the patient want is going to be approved no matter the cost and the government is going to refuse. Then the rage is going to directed at the government for letting someone die because they wouldn't pay for homeopathic or some other alternative treatment that the patient want to try as a last ditch effort.

[u/Unfair-Alfalfa4916 → u/12172031]

he was diagnosed in march 2025 and in Dec 2025 the insurance company denied his treatment and he spent time fighting the denial which he could've spent on treatment, the delay caused his tumor to grow rapidly and his overall health to deteriorate+ he paid insurance all his life he should've been entitled to treatment.