7. Cancer Survivors have a Right for their Cancer to be Forgotten by Financial Service Providers
Further to a wide range of the previous described physical, psychological and professional impacts of cancer and cancer treatment, a significant obstacle faced by cancer survivors to return to a normal life is the one of financial discrimination.
When applying for insurance, cancer survivors are often asked to disclose their full medical history, including their cancer diagnosis. Based on this information, insurers may exclude certain risks, including cancer, from their policy, increase insurance premiums by up to 300% or reject applications altogether. This significantly affects people’s ability to obtain travel, health and life insurance. It also affects their access to loan- related insurance, which covers outstanding payments on a loan in the case of death, sickness or unemployment, and is, in some countries where mortgages are rare, often mandatory when applying for loans, for example to buy property. Altogether, these issues significantly increase the socioeconomic burden placed on cancer survivors, acting as financial obstacles in every aspect of their professional and personal lives, even years after the successful completion of cancer treatment117.
To address this issue, three European countries (France, Belgium and Luxemburg), likely soon joined by Netherlands, have implemented specific legislative initiatives, recognizing a ‘Right to Be Forgotten’ for cancer survivors. The provisions state that in the context of accessing financial services, the period beyond which no medical information relating to the previous cancerous disease can be collected by insurance organisms may not exceed ten years after the end of treatment or, for cancers occurring in children and young adults (before age 18 in Belgium and Luxemburg, before age 21 in France and Netherlands), five years after the end of treatment. The laws also include a list of exceptions for cancers with an excellent prognosis having shorter delays to exercise the Right to Be Forgotten118.
These regulations represent a great milestone for the European cancer community, which has long been unanimously calling and advocating for their implementation. A prominent example of such calls is the European Cancer Summit 2018 resolution on financial discrimination of cancer survivors. Developed together with Member Societies of the European Cancer Organisation and its Patient Advisory Committee, this resolution set a target of 2025 for delivery of the ‘Right to be Forgotten’ for cancer survivors in all European countries and was agreed on, following public consultation, by 400 leading representatives of healthcare professional, patient, research and other stakeholder communities. In spite of the progress achieved since then, exhaustive implementation of relevant regulations protecting cancer survivors from financial discrimination is still far from complete in Europe119.
Concerns about the socio-economic issues experienced by survivors of cancer across Europe have been raised also by EU Institutions. In this regard, an important step forward was the inclusion of the ‘Right to Be Forgotten’ as a measure of best practice to ensure the best possible quality of life for cancer survivors in the roadmap for the EU Beating Cancer Plan, promoted by the EU Commission in February 2020120. Lately, the Interim Report of the Mission Board for Cancer included the ‘Right to be Forgotten’ among the recommendations to the EU Member States to counteract discrimination and to ensure equality121. In this context, a pan-European solution based on the implementation of the ‘Right to be Forgotten’ would be a relevant approach to tackle the issue. The EU Action would provide a common regulatory framework among the Member States to avoid discrimination and ensuring equality among EU citizens who experienced cancer.
