Cancer: finally the “right to be forgotten” for cured patients

While an amendment in favor of the right to be forgotten was adopted last week, the President of the Republic is taking a “historic” step. François Hollande signed this Tuesday morning at the headquarters of the League against cancer a memorandum of understanding on the right to be forgotten for people cured of cancer.

One year after the launch of the 3^th cancer plan, this agreement was signed by the government (Ministers of Finance and Health), insurance companies, banks, patient associations, the League against cancer and theNational Cancer Institute (INCa).

Three major advances
“The absolute need for continuity of life for patients affected by the disease requires a right to be forgotten (…), to the erasure of a sort of” cancer criminal record “feared almost as much as the disease herself, ”said Jacqueline Godet, president of the League against cancer.

This agreement should therefore allow people with cancer and now cured to be insured to borrow without having to declare past illness. Three major advances have been ratified, in particular for childhood and adolescent cancers.

People with cancer before the age of 15 will be able to benefit from the right to be forgotten from 5 years after the end of the therapeutic protocol. In addition, patients who have not received treatment for 15 years or more will no longer have to report their cancer to insurance.

The agreement also recommends that people treated for certain cancers whose treatment has ceased for less than 15 years can be insured at the normal rate without additional premium while declaring their pathology. A reference grid will be established and regularly updated in order to define which types of cancer are concerned.

A considerable advance

“This agreement marks a decisive step for the AERAS convention (insure and borrow with an aggravated health risk) which gives sick and disabled people better access to real estate loans, consumer loans and insurance. borrower ”, explained INCa.

The purpose of this agreement, signed in 2007, was to put an end to the exclusion of formerly sick people. It makes it easier to benefit, under certain sometimes restrictive conditions, from insurance in order to obtain a mortgage or credit without having to complete a medical questionnaire. The various provisions ratified today will give rise to “an amendment to the AERAS convention within 3 months”, specified the French Banking Federation (FBF).

Extend the approach
Hailed by patient associations and the main signatories, the right to be forgotten was an emblematic proposal of the latest cancer plan. ” This agreement […] is a considerable step forward for people who are or have been sick ”, welcomed INCa.

Now, some want to see the device spread to other diseases. “We think in particular of the case of hepatitis C, […], but also to many other pathologies which we see that they no longer lead to an increase in the morbidity of the people concerned when they respond well to the treatment from which they are receiving “, declared the Interassociative Collective on Health (CISS) .