Right to be forgotten and cancer: reduced to 5 years, new

On February 17, 2022, the bill reducing to five years the right to be forgotten for people who have had cancer is definitively adopted by parliament. This law also removes the medical questionnaire for home loans below 200,000 euros. This deletion will come into force on June 1 2022. The National Assembly and the Senate had agreed on a final version of the Law proposition relative to “fairer, simpler and more transparent access to the borrower insurance market” for cancer patients on February 3, 2022. The bill was tabled by MP Patricia Lemoine and several of her colleagues on October 29, 2021.

Definition: what is the right to be forgotten?

Surcharges, warranty exclusions, exorbitant rates for borrower insurance…Taking out a bank loan in France after cancer is a real obstacle course. But the law on the modernization of our health system promulgated on January 26, 2016 within the framework of the AERAS agreement established the right to be forgotten. This measure allows former cancer patients conceal their medical history when taking out a bank loan after a period of 10 years after the end of the therapeutic protocol. Until then, they were required to declare their illness. Measure 14 stated that “people who have suffered from pediatric cancer would not have to declare their disease 5 years after the end of the therapeutic protocol“. And in the same way, that “all former patients, whatever the cancer from which they suffered, would not have to declare it 10 years after stopping treatment”.

What conditions for cancer patients?

According to current AERAS agreement (Insuring and Borrowing with an Aggravated Health Risk), two conditions must be met for the right to be forgotten mechanism to be applied:

• The nature of the loan : insurance contracts cover allocated or dedicated consumer loans, professional loans for the acquisition of premises and/or equipment, real estate loans;
• Maturity of insurance contracts must intervene before the borrower’s 71st birthday.

The agreement also specifies thatno medical information relating to the cancerous pathology of the subject may be requested by the insurer since she was diagnosed. From now on, the right to be forgotten will be set at 5 years for all cancers and hepatitis C and there will no longer be any distinction according to the age at which the cancer was diagnosed. In addition, the text adopted includes another measure with the abolition of the transmission to the insurer of any information relating to the state of health of the insured or of a health examination for loans whose insured share per person is less than 200,000 euros and whose expiry occurs before the 60th birthday of the insured. This deletion will come into force on June 1, 2022.

Are all cancers affected by the new law?

“The right to be forgotten concerns all people who have suffered from cancer, regardless of location and histological type, but also chronic diseases such as diabetes, who wish to borrow“, answers the specialist.

After how long does the right to be forgotten apply to cancer patients?

From now on, the right to be forgotten will be set at 5 years for all cancers and hepatitis C and there will no longer be any distinction according to the age at which the cancer was diagnosed. On the other hand, this deadline remains unchanged for pediatric cancersi.e. 5 years after the end of the therapeutic protocol, in the absence of recurrence.

What will be the new conditions for borrower insurance?

According to the text adopted at first reading by the National Assembly, people who have taken out a home loan can cancel their borrower insurance at any time. Previously, several texts had already reformed mortgage credit insurance:

• The “Lagarde law” of July 1, 2010 opened the right to freely choose borrower insurance.
• The “Hamon law” of March 17, 2014 allowed termination at any time, from the first year of the contract.
• The amendment says “Bourquin” at the “Sapin 2 law” of December 9, 2016 extended this right of termination beyond the first year.

However, “none of these legislative measures has, until now, really made it possible to liberalize the creditor insurance market, which remains in a quasi-monopoly situation in favor of the banks“, declared the deputy Patricia Lemoine at the origin of the bill. A market unfavorable to consumers, since it represents a turnover of nearly seven billion euros. Nowadays, the joint committee validated the following provisions of the bill, which should be voted on, subject to amendments that may be made in the National Assembly:

► “The due date to be taken into account for exercising the right of termination mentioned in article L. 113 12 of this code is, at the choice of the insured, the anniversary date of the signing of the loan offer by the latter or any other expiry date provided for in the contract“. “However, the mixed parity committee validated that the notice attached to the loan offer mentions the possibility for the borrower to terminate the contract at any time. Furthermore, it removes the provisions relating to the mention of the due date. We will therefore have to wait for the final vote on the law to decide on this point.“, specifies Master Muriel Bodin.

► “the lender will be required to communicate to the borrower, on paper or any other durable medium, the date of signature of the loan offerupon receipt of this signed offer and to mention it on any documentation made available to the borrower and relating to his loan.” (Art. L. 313-30-1.)

► “The insurer, the mutual insurance company or the union will inform the insured each year, on paper or any other durable medium, of the right of termination provided in Article L. 113-12, the terms of termination and the various notification and information deadlines that he must respect”.

Thanks to Maître Muriel Bodin, lawyer at the Paris Bar, specialized in health law

Sources:

– “Reduction of the right to be forgotten period to facilitate access to credit for former cancer patients“, February 18, 2022, Ministry of Health.

– “Extended right to be forgotten for former cancer patients“, February 21, 2022, government.fr

– “Bill for fairer, simpler and more transparent access to the borrower insurance market“, February 3, 2022, Vie-publique.

– “Right to be forgotten: easier access to credit for people who have suffered from a serious illness“, 14 February 2017, Ministry of Health.

– “Law for the modernization of our health system”, January 28, 2016, Ministry of Health.