Cancer survivors will not have to declare their cancer history when signing up for life insurance or contracting a financial service as long as five years have passed since the end of treatment and without a subsequent relapse. This is indicated by the decree-law approved by the Council of Ministers that makes effective the right to be forgotten oncology.
The president of the Spanish Association Against Cancer (Aeec), Ramón Reyes, estimates that “there are 2.2 million people who have or have had cancer and it is estimated that there may be 1.6 million people who are long-term survivors, of 30%-40% of whom may be of working age, and are also discriminated against”.
The person in charge of announcing it was the First Vice President and Minister of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, Nadia Calviño, at the press conference after the Council of Ministers. This right will be included in the Royal Legislative Decree 1/2007, of November 16, which approves the consolidated text of the General Law for the Defense of Consumers and Users and other complementary laws, and of the Contract Law of Sure.
The legal text, which enters into force at the time of its publication, establishes “the nullity of clauses, stipulations, conditions or agreements that exclude one of the parties due to having suffered from cancer” and “the prohibition of making differentiations in contracting of insurance to a person for having suffered an oncological pathology”, once the aforementioned period has elapsed.
This is a historic claim by the Spanish Association Against Cancer and the Spanish Federation of Parents of Children with Cancer (FPNC) when confirming that cancer survivors were mostly rejected when they tried to take out health, life or mortgage insurance being forced, on occasions, to hide their illness.
With this approval, the Government saves the promise made in May by Pedro Sánchez to regulate by law the right to be forgotten oncology, which was paralyzed by the electoral advance of July 23 and the dissolution of the Cortes a few weeks after Parliament gave green light to norm.
The decree-law also empowers the Government to modify these deadlines based on scientific evidence.
The right to be forgotten oncology is a commitment of the European Parliament and should be a reality throughout the EU before the year 2025. Spain was, together with Italy and Malta, the only European countries without current legislation that would prevent banks and insurers from discriminating against cancer patients
