The Irish Cancer Society has accused mortgage and insurance companies of “punishing” survivors by making it harder for them to get cover.
Bosses at the charity claim that a person’s medical history is used against them as an obstacle to accessing mortgage and insurance protection.
They are now calling for legislation that gives cancer survivors a “right to be forgotten” five years after treatment.
The Irish Cancer Society reports that close to 50% of people affected by cancer have claimed that insurers were difficult to deal with, while 25% stated that they could not get a quote at all.
The charity’s director of advocacy, Rachel Morrogh, said: “People affected by cancer feel that they are being punished for their past diagnosis.”
She added: “It’s time that we brought in legislation on the Right to be Forgotten beyond cancer.
“We need to catch up with other European countries and ensure that people who have had a cancer diagnosis in the past are not treated unfairly when planning for their future.”
Cork schoolteacher Kate O’Callaghan, who recovered from Hodgkin lymphoma in 2018 and then struggled to get a mortgage in 2020, said survivors have “paid a high enough price already”.
Kate said: “I couldn’t get mortgage protection and you can’t get a mortgage without it. It was such a stressful process.”
She added: “I want to highlight this for everyone who has an illness. Why should they be treated unfairly for no fault of their own?”
A spokesperson for the Irish Cancer Society revealed that its claims are based on new evidence from survivors and their families, following surveys carried out by Core Research on behalf of the charity.
She said people affected by cancer in their lifetime are “over three times more likely to have difficulty purchasing insurance than the general population and over twice as likely to experience problems in getting a mortgage”.
She added that “right to be forgotten” legislation, which already exists in other EU countries like France and Portugal, would mean that people who finish cancer treatment “no longer have to declare their cancer diagnosis five years after they have recovered when seeking access to financial products or services”.
