Retired SF firefighter dies of lung cancer after insurance denials

A retired San Francisco firefighter died at 70 of stage 4 lung cancer 14 months after his insurer denied coverage for recommended treatments, ABC7 Los Angeles reported Thursday.

The death of Ken Jones, a 17-year Fire Department veteran, has prompted San Francisco officials to investigate other denied insurance claims and raised questions about coverage for the approximately 5,000 city employees and retirees enrolled in Blue Shield plans.

Jones, a 17-year veteran of the San Francisco Fire Department, was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer and died 14 months later at age 70, according to ABC7 Los Angeles. Blue Shield, the department's insurance carrier, denied coverage for some of the treatments his physicians recommended before the case drew media attention.

His wife, Helen Horvath, said the insurer reached out only after the story went public — and the resulting plan fell short. "After we got some publicity, thank you, a Blue Shield physician reached out to Ken's physician, and they worked out a different plan that Blue Shield would cover. It's still an incomplete plan," Horvath said in a January 2026 statement to ABC7 Los Angeles.

Jones' case has renewed attention to the elevated cancer risks facing firefighters throughout their careers. "Current statistics tell us that 65% of the men and women in our profession are going to contract some form of cancer in their lifetime. Some of them will be fatal," said Tony Stefani of the Cancer Prevention Foundation, according to ABC7 Los Angeles. Firefighters have a 14% higher cancer mortality rate than the general population.

Blue Shield, which covers about 5,000 San Francisco city employees and retirees through the Health Service Board, said in a statement provided to ABC7 Los Angeles that "for Medicare members, health plans must follow medical policy established by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)."

The case has since prompted city officials to investigate whether other claimants faced similar denials. San Francisco leaders called on anyone who had been denied cancer treatment coverage to come forward.

San Francisco officials continue to investigate the scope of insurance denials for cancer treatment among current and retired city employees, urging anyone affected to come forward.