Ken Jones, a longtime San Francisco firefighter suffering from Stage 4 (metastatic) cancer, passed away on Saturday at the age of 71. Over the past four months, Jones was the subject of several NBC Bay Area investigative reports that chronicled his drawn out battle with his health insurance provider, Blue Shield of California, after it twice denied medical treatment requested by Jones’ oncologist.
“I believe, wholeheartedly, that they expedited his death,” said Jeanine Nicholson, the former chief of the San Francisco Fire Department and a close friend of Jones for roughly 30 years. “They should be ashamed.”
Jones spent 17 years working as a firefighter as well as the department’s lead counselor, supporting first responders coping with a wide ride of trauma, including serious illnesses. When Nicholson was diagnosed with breast cancer more than a decade ago, it was Ken Jones who drove her to her medical appointments for six months.
“Chemotherapy really is tough – it’s tough on your body because it’s killing all the good cells as well as the bad,” she said. “[Ken] had to suffer a lot through that, and then being denied further treatment— it’s just so cruel. It is so cruel.”
Following NBC Bay Area’s series of reports chronicling Jones’ battle with Blue Shield, members of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors summoned top leaders at the insurance company to appear at a hearing at City Hall to explain its claims approval process and commit to working with the local firefighters union on reforms aimed at ensuring first responders receive timely access to critical care…