Retired firefighter in stage 4 denied cancer treatment sparks nation wide backlash
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As NBCBayArea.com reports, Ken Jones, a retired San Francisco firefighter battling stage 4 lung cancer was recently denied coverage for life-saving treatment, sparking outrage among city officials, fellow firefighters, and advocacy groups.
The case has exposed broader concerns about insurance denials affecting public servants with job-related cancers.
As Hoodline.com reports, Ken Jones, a 70-year-old retired firefighter who served San Francisco for 17 years, was diagnosed with stage 4 adenocarcinoma in March 2025. His doctors at UCSF prescribed a combination of chemotherapy and immunotherapy, but in January 2026 the city’s contracted insurer reportedly denied coverage, citing the treatment as “outside the standard course of care”.
As People.com reports, Jones and his wife, Helen Horvath, herself a 14-year veteran of the San Francisco Fire Department, appealed to the city’s Health Service Board. “He has painful, metastatic tumors in his bones, lymph nodes, soft tissues, and brain,” Horvath told the board. “That denial is causing serious harm to Ken’s health and is now threatening his life”.
Legal and Medical Context
Under California Labor Code Section 3212.1, cancer in firefighters is legally presumed to be job-related, due to decades of exposure to toxic smoke and carcinogens. The Firefighter Cancer Support Network reports that firefighters have a 9% higher risk of developing cancer and a 14% higher risk of dying from it compared to the general population.
The World Health Organization has classified firefighting as a carcinogenic occupation, and more than 400 San Francisco firefighters have died from cancer since 2006, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Photo Credit: Ken Jones. Source: Go Fund Me