2023-05-13 13:16:16
The right to be forgotten oncology, a historical claim of cancer organizations in the face of the most burdensome conditions that those who have suffered from this disease usually face when contracting products or services such as loans, insurance or mortgages, will be a reality in summer . Pedro Sánchez, back in Spain after receiving the reception with the US president, Joe Biden, at the White House, has promised to do so this morning in a meeting he has held in Seville with associations for patients, before his first meeting of the electoral campaign of 28-M. The Government will promote a legislative initiative to expedite its processing in the Cortes. The goal is for the cancer right to be forgotten to be in force in June. This new right will benefit all people who have completed cancer treatment five years before the date of signing the contract, without a subsequent relapse.
“We are going to recognize the right to oncological oblivion of all those patients who defeated cancer. This means that they will no longer suffer discrimination when it comes to signing a mortgage or accessing insurance or credit. This is useful politics, it is what a government that is sensitive to the people does and that defends what interests the majority of the people”, Sánchez asserted before more than 2,500 militants and supporters.
The norm that Sánchez is now announcing is based on the global and coordinated strategy in the fight in Europe against cancer, which recommends that Member States put measures in place to avoid discrimination against survivors of this disease before 2025. It is approved in a resolution of the European Parliament of February 2022, and Spain had yet to apply measures.
The PSOE proposal will declare null and void all clauses based on cancer history that exclude or discriminate when contracting products or services. The main government party understands that a regulation that prevents the oncological history of the insured from being taken into account is a priority. The result is often the imposition of more onerous conditions by insurers.
The norm that the Socialists will take to Congress and the Senate will establish, for the first time, the right not to declare that cancer has been suffered when going to contract insurance linked to a mortgage loan. 83% of leukemia patients or ex-patients between the ages of 18 and 35 state that they have had difficulties in taking out life insurance. 78% have experienced them with deaths, according to the study Young people and leukemia: Beyond survivingfrom the Josep Carreras Foundation, carried out last year among 295 young people who suffered from or had suffered from the disease.
The PSOE will carry out the processing by amending Royal Legislative Decree 1/2007 approving the consolidated text of the General Law for the Defense of Consumers and Users and other complementary laws, and the Insurance Contract Law .
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The measure is inspired by advances in countries such as France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, where cancer survivors already enjoy the right to be forgotten. The European Parliament proposed to the member countries that they guarantee it 10 years after the end of treatment, a period that drops to 5 years for patients who have received their diagnosis as minors. Sánchez has accepted the latter for all the survivors.
“Insurers and banks should not take into account the medical history of people affected by cancer; calls for national legislation to ensure that cancer survivors are not discriminated against compared to other consumers; notes the Commission’s intention to work with business to develop a code of conduct to ensure that the evolution of cancer treatments and their increased effectiveness are reflected in the business practices of financial service providers,” reads the resolution of the European Parliament, approved in February 2022.
Eneko Ariz López de Castro, founder of e]Cancellation, a law firm specialized in the right to be forgotten, welcomes the announcement, but qualifies that we will have to wait for the regulation to know its true scope: “We will have to see its scope of application , if it overrides the future clauses, if it can also be applied to past situations of patients who have already been denied insurance.
The employers’ association of insurers (Unespa) assures that the sector “is sensitive to the situation of people who have overcome cancer and need insurance to take out a mortgage or other loan.” “We have established contact with the Administration and with cancer patient organizations to find collaboration frameworks that, following the principles of the insurance technique, benefit people who have overcome cancer”, add spokespersons for the employer.
2.2 million affected
Sánchez has advanced the plans of the Executive to representatives of the Spanish Association against Cancer (AECC), the Spanish Federation of Parents of Children with Cancer, the Spanish Federation of Breast Cancer (FECMA), the Spanish Group of Cancer Patients (GEPAC ), the Marco Luna Association and the Association of Ovarian Cancer Affected. The meeting was held at the headquarters of the Andalusian Government Delegation and was attended by the Minister of Health, José Manuel Miñones.
The AECC estimates that there are 2.2 million people who have overcome cancer and welcomes this announcement, which “represents a great step for the social protection of patients”. According to the association, the right to be forgotten is not the only problem they face: “growing social needs, unwanted loneliness, work problems and specific health needs make the dimension of the problems of this group greater in a society, like the Spanish, increasingly aged”.
They give as an example the loss of work and the “increasingly complicated job reinsertion”. According to data from the association, 21% have had to stop working due to the disease and 14% have had to change jobs.
Yaiza Cumelles, a cancer survivor, knows what it is like to be denied insurance for having suffered from the disease. “With banks, mortgages, or insurance, I don’t even consider it. Because I already know what the answer is ”, she assured in a report published a few weeks ago in EL PAÍS. Today she says she is “very happy for this big and important step.”
“Cancer is a very hard disease, not only while you are undergoing treatment, but also afterward you continue with the label of ‘cancer patient’ that always accompanies you”, he explains. “You live with the physical and mental consequences and, in addition, the social stigma: closed doors and discrimination. You try to live as normal as possible, but society constantly reminds you that just being alive is enough. After the news that the right to be forgotten about cancer will be applied, I am very proud, living in a country that is committed to moving forward and offering opportunities to those of us who have suffered from this disease, makes me very happy”.
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