A local Councillor is campaigning to allow cancer survivors the “right to be forgotten,” which at present is a voluntary code of practice agreed by Irish life insurance companies.
Cllr Thomasina Connell called on Laois County Council write to Jennifer Carroll MacNeill TD, Minister of State at the Department of Finance, with responsibility for Financial Services, Credit Unions and Insurance, seeking the enactment of legislation.
The Fine Gael Cllr was speaking earlier this week at the most recent monthly meeting of Laois County Council, where there was strong support from party colleague, Cllr John King, and Sinn Féin Cllr, Caroline Dwane Stanley.
“Cancer is something that no doubt has touched everyone,” Cllr Connell said.
“However, thanks to improvements in treatment and screening programmes over the last number of decades a cancer diagnosis is no longer a terminal one and over 200,000 cancer survivors now live in Ireland having overcome their illness.
“Although the rise in survival rates is good news, those who have overcome cancer still face many challenges particularly when they try to obtain various life insurance policies, which are essential when taking out a mortgage to purchase a home.
“A cancer diagnosis must be declared no matter how long ago someone recovered.
“For example, an adult taking out a life policy for a mortgage must declare if they had any form of cancer in childhood, which could be decades later.
“Many cancer survivors have reported that they cannot even get a quote for a wide range of financial products, life policies, health and travel insurance and are turned away at the first mention of having had cancer, many years after they got the all-clear.
“The Irish Cancer Society has undertaken huge work in this area, and in their study ‘The Real Cost of Cancer’ they went about engaging with Cancer survivors as to their experience with the financial services system.
“When surveyed, many survivors who managed to get a quote for a policy, which was simply unaffordable in some cases, experienced discriminatory treatment when applying, being forced to jump though hoops with banks, brokers and life insurance companies.
“The research showed that people who are affected by cancer found banks and insurance providers more difficult to deal with, compared to the rest of the general population. Many were left feeling demoralised.
“People affected by cancer reported refusal and unfair treatment as the most common difficulties they experienced. This is unacceptable.
“Cancer survivors should not be faced with such significant financial barriers having come through so much and beating cancer.
“No person who has had cancer should be punished and the Irish Cancer Society’s survey found that 9 out of 10 people in our society think the same; that cancer survivors should not be precluded from getting credit or be charged a higher premium for an insurance policy.
“At an EU level steps have been taken to address the unfair treatment and in July the European Parliament and the European Council agreed to update the EU’s rules on consumer credit and included a clause for the ‘Right to Be Forgotten’ for Cancer survivors.
“Deirdre Clune, MEP for Ireland South, pushed hard for this clause to be included.
“It means that Cancer Survivors in applying for life insurance and other types of cover such as health and travel insurance will have the ‘Right to be Forgotten’, that their cancer diagnosis will no longer have to be declared after a specified time period.
“It is essential that these measures are implemented at a national level here in Ireland.
“We must follow the lead of France, Belgium, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Portugal and Romania who have all introduced legislation for the ‘Right to Be Forgotten’.
“Today I am calling on the Government and in particular Minister of State Ms. Jennifer Carroll-McNeill T.D. who has responsibility for Financial Services to forge ahead and urgently enact the legislation to allow Cancer survivors the Right to be Forgotten.”
