The Journal - "Cancer survivors now have 'right to be forgotten' when seeking mortgage protection insurance"

[ClubMan]

Cancer survivors now have 'right to be forgotten' when seeking mortgage protection insurance

Survivors, their families and campaigners have long sought the ‘right to be forgotten’.

www.thejournal.ie

Previously discussed here:

Cancer survivors want the right to be forgotten when it comes to mortgages and life insurance

Apparently Catherine Ardagh introduced a bill in the Dáil yesterday to force insurance companies not to ask questions about cancer when someone applies for mortgage protection or life insurance. She spoke about it on Newstalk Breakfast this morning. The main argument she seemed to make was...

www.askaboutmoney.com

 

[TomEdison]

Seems a bit arbitrary. There's a slew of diseases which can be effectively treated but nevertheless are associated with an adverse impact on life expectancy, including not only cancer but also diabetes, HIV infection, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, kidney disease, lupus and Parkinsonism. Why are cancer sufferers singled out for this protection?

 

[Corola]

diabetes, HIV infection, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, kidney disease, lupus and Parkinsonism

Do any of these diseases go into remission? As far as I'm aware they are permanent life-long conditions that require on-going treatment.

The right to be forgotten is conditional on the cancer being in complete remission and active treatment finished for at least 5 years.

 

[Fortune]

Why are cancer sufferers singled out for this protection

Why is it only for certain types of cancer? There's plenty of cancers that never go away.

 

[Corola]

Isn't that the point? You're rated for conditions you currently have.

If you used to be a smoker, but aren't anymore, you get better rates.

If you used to have cancer, but don't anymore, you get better rates.

 

[faketales]

An Irish solution to an Irish problem.

Very few countries require mortgage protection by law. Ireland does and its medical exemption doesn’t really solve much just drops the legal requirement but the banks are so used to having it they usually require it any way.

Like so much it’s intentions are good of course, to ensure the family get to stay in the home should one die. (Although it doesn’t cover someone being unable to work which I image is more common.)

With more proactive medical screening and people buying later in life the issues regarding insurance cover are only going to grow.

A very small number of people working for a small number of private companies are making decisions regarding who gets to buy and who doesn’t.

 

[TomEdison]

Isn't that the point? You're rated for conditions you currently have.

From an underwriting point of view, the issue is not whether you currently have the condition or not; it's whether having had the diagnosis has a continuing statistically significant implication for your life expectancy.

I'm perfectly comfortable, where insurance is mandatory, with the law requiring insurers to provide cover without reference to medical underwriting considerations; this is just a societal decision about which risks we choose to pool. What I don't understand is why we would say that this medical underwriting consideration must be ignored, while that medical underwriting consideration need not be.

 

[Monbretia]

If this is all to do with banks and getting mortgages then I just think lenders should be obliged to give waivers as allowed under the Consumer Credit Act where customer meets the criteria and not just when the lender wants to. This unable to get life cover issue is covered by that Act which recognises not everyone can get cover but banks are now very tight on giving the waivers.

As I often said I don't have much good to say about UB but in their favour they gave a waiver where criteria was met, I feel that acceptance of no cover came from their UK overlords where mortgage protection isn't mandatory so it wasn't as big an issue.

I understand if you want to just get life insurance for some other reason but it's really not the only condition that will impact that, family history can have an effect without it even being your own history so hard to understand why one thing is being singled out.