Veteran San Francisco firefighter denied cancer treatment by insurance
By Bigad Shaban
January 9, 2026
A retired San Francisco firefighter and his family are pleading with San Francisco officials to intervene in what they describe as a matter of life and death.
Ken Jones, who spent 17 years as a firefighter in the city, suffers from an advanced stage of lung cancer, known as adenocarcinoma. Jones’s oncologists at UCSF say he needs a specific course of treatment involving chemo and immunotherapies, but his city employee insurance plan, run by Blue Shield of California, denied the coverage last month and the subsequent appeal filed by Jones’s physicians. The family tells NBC Bay Area despite the urging from Jones’s doctors, the insurance company denied the claim and described the proposed treatment as being outside the standard course of care.
In a statement, Blue Shield declined to comment on the nature of the denial, citing privacy laws which it said prevent the company from commenting on patient cases.
“Today, I am forced to stand here and beg because an insurance company decided that profits matter more than the life of a man who spent his career protecting this city,” said a tearful Rachel Jones, Ken Jones’s daughter, who on Thursday asked a government oversight board to intervene on her father’s behalf. “Blue Shield has decided that my father’s life is not worth paying for.”
Jones’s daughter and wife were at San Francisco City Hall along with other concerned members of the public to ask the city’s Health Service Board to take action against Blue Shield.
Former San Francisco Fire Dept. Chief Jeanine Nicholson
“Firefighters, whether active or retired, should never have to beg for their lives,” said Former Fire Dept. Chief Jeanine Nicholson, who is also a cancer survivor and was one of those who lined up to address the Health Service Board. “This is not the first firefighter this has happened to, nor will it be the last if something doesn’t change.”
While the oversight agency cannot force an insurance company to reverse a claim denial, the board is responsible for approving all city employee health plan contracts and could put pressure on insurance companies to reconsider its handling of city employee medical claims.
“Blue Shield values our relationship with the City and County of San Francisco,” a company spokesperson wrote in a statement. “We are committed to working closely with the Health Service Board to address any issues that are raised by members.”
The proposed course of treatment the Jones family is fighting for aims to slow the progression of the cancer, which has already spread. Jones and his family would have to pay roughly $50,000 out-of-pocket for the medication if Blue Shield maintains its refusal to pay the claim.
“That denial is causing serious harm to Ken’s health and is now threatening his life,” said Helen Horvath, Jones’s wife, who is also a 14-year-veteran of the San Francisco Fire Department. “He has painful, metastatic tumors in his bones, in his lymph nodes, and soft tissues, as well as tumors in his brain.”
Horvath told the board her husband’s stage four cancer is tied to his nearly two decades on the front lines as a firefighter. The inherent health risks of firefighting, including prolonged exposure to…
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