jk5854 / Flickr
This “civilizational achievement” is moving forward. Patients should not be discriminated against in access – but many do not even know this law.
The Secretary of State for Treasury and Finance said on Friday that the government is working on regulating the “Right to oblivion” in credits and insurance And he argued that he has to be balanced to protect people and insurers.
The right to oblivion, the ASF – insurance supervision authority and pension funds, is for people who exceeded an aggravated risk of health or disability.
There are three criteria Temporal: Either 10 years have passed the end of therapies (at risk aggravated by health or disabled), or 5 years since the end of the therapeutic protocol (in case that the surpassed pathology has occurred before 21 years of age), or 2 years of continued and effective therapeutic protocol (at risk aggravated by health or mitigated deficiency).
Those who fulfill these criteria benefit from the right to oblivion. I.e, You do not have to inform the insurance company of this problem already outdated. If the insurance company asks if the person suffered from a pathology or disabled or mitigated, it may answer no. And the value cannot be increased because of this situation.
“Conquest” and Balance
Secretary of State João Silva Lopes said the law of the “right to forget” (approved in 2021) was a “Civilizational conquest”, But previous socialist governments have “unfortunately forgotten and to do” regulation, announcing that the current executive has ongoing the definition of the rules so that people who have overcome or mitigate serious illnesses such as cancer are not discriminated against in credit or insurance.
“Who overcame or mitigated disease must have access to the same conditions Hiring credits and insurance, ”said the ruler at the conference dedicated to the“ right to forget ”, organized in Lisbon by ASF.
However, the ruler added that the regulation will have to be done in order to balance Interests from both patients and companies: “This is a change that will have to be done in a balanced way, ensuring non -discrimination and protection of people and without questioning the sustainability of the system and insurance activity,” he said.
Young man with leukemia
On January 1, 2022, the law (approved in 2021) of the “right to forget” entered into force that ensures access to credit and insurance to people who surpassed and mitigated serious illness. However, the law continues without regulating.
Last September, Deco and Sick Organizations presented complaint The provider of justice for the lack of the decree-law that regulates the law, considering that this has favored discriminatory practices.
Regulation will define, among others, the mandatory information to be disclosed in the “websites” by credit institutions and insurers and set a reference grid that will allow more favorable terms and deadlines than those defined in legislation for each disease or disability and what information may be requested from patients.
At the conference of this Friday organized by the ASF, the director general of the Deco Deco Protection Association, Ana Cristina Tapadinhas, considered that before the law thousands of people lived situations of exclusion financial and social that “perpetuated the stigma of the disease”.
He gave as an example a young man who had leukemia at age 16 and was overcome, but who at 28 could not buy a home with a resource of credit for not being able to make life insurance.
Don’t even know
For tapadinhas this law is fundamental, but regulation prevents its practical application and added that Many citizens do not even know this right.
Deco praised ASF for giving insurers instructions to inform, clearly and in writing, this right to consumers and criticized Banco de Portugal because it has not yet given instruction in the same direction to banks.
The Deco Director-General also said that the current moment brings yet another issue, the ease of insurers to study consumer profiles, from the outset, to remove risk behaviors, which considers that “Fagilizes the right to oblivion ”.
For the president of the Portuguese Insurers Association (APS), Galamba de Oliveira, it is important to regulate how insurers should act and protect themselves in the face of financial risks.
One of the most important things in regulation, he said, is realize what a surpassed disease is and a mitigated disease (Considering this an even more complex concept).
Stated that the decree-law must clarify to which financial products the “right to oblivion” applies. According to him, in France the law of “right to forget” is only valid for credit for first housing and Portugal will have to define whether it applies only in these credits or not.
For the Full Professor of Law José Alberto Vieira, this law is “a Little I think ”, For the insurer maintains commercial freedom to refuse insurance, which can not justify with clinical data as it cannot collect them.
According to the jurist, the law now allows Who hires insurance can “lie to the insurernegligently or intentionally, ”so he considers that the current law“ does not solve the problem of non -discrimination and has weaknesses ”.
