François Hollande plans to legislate to grant a right to be forgotten to patients who recover from cancer. The aim of the measure is to avoid any discrimination against banks and insurers.
In its last report published a few days ago, the National Cancer Institute (INCa) indicated that, for some cancers, the five-year survival rate exceeds 95%. However, healing does not always rhyme with the end of the fight for the former patients. They have long demanded the right to be forgotten.
François Hollande puts pressure on the banks
The request comes in particular from patient associations but also from François Hollande, who had recently promised it during the presentation of the new Cancer Plan 2014-2019. The President of the Republic had on this occasion denounced the “fatality” which weighs on many former patients who, once cured, do not manage to obtain bank loans.
Concretely, the Head of State wants insurance companies and banks to stop asking in their questionnaires if their customers have ever had cancer.
An upheaval when we know that today, even years later, it is difficult if not impossible for these people to obtain insurance to cover a bank loan. Establishments that accept take the opportunity to charge these customers rates 10 times higher than standard rates.
A breakthrough for sick children
Faced with this injustice, negotiations on this subject will be launched, and in case of failure, François Hollande is already threatening to go through the law. Asked last Wednesday about RMC, Professor Agnès Buzyn, president of the National Cancer Institute, confided “this announcement is a major advance, especially for children who have been treated for cancer and who are struggling to obtain a loan for fifteen or twenty years. after remission of the disease. “
Insurance companies dispute these figures
For its part, the French Federation of Insurance Companies stresses that the convention known as “Aeras“set up in 2006 allows them to provide an insurance proposal to 97% of applicants seeking insurance for their bank loan.
Figures that patient associations do not dispute, but which they believe hide a good part of the reality. Because in 70% of cases, the proposals made include surcharges, up to 1000%, reported a witness a few days ago in The cross. Sometimes incomplete risk coverage is also offered. And 3% of applicants are refused.
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