Perfect timing. On this World Cancer Day, patient associations – for once – welcome three advances in French law. Thursday, February 3, two bills were adopted by Parliament, giving hope that things will move quickly on the right side of patients and cancer prevention. What will these three measures change (if implemented)?
The right to be forgotten would go from ten to five years
The first part concerns the daily life of cancer patients. Yesterday, the Assembly and the Senate, meeting in a joint committee, adopted a measure eagerly awaited by certain patients: the
“right to be forgotten”which should be reduced from ten to five years.
In 2016, the law for the modernization of our health system created this novelty: the right for a person subscribing to a borrower’s insurance contract not to declare their cancer ten years after the end of their treatments. And thus avoid paying heavy surcharges, or even being refused a loan. “It was a first march, but ten years of waiting for sick people, it’s surreal”, tance Catherine Simonin, national administrator of the league against cancer.
Catherine therefore applauds with both hands this shortened period to five years, if the law passes well as it stands. She can talk about it, because as she says, “I completely fit into the system! “. In fact, she suffered from digestive cancer twenty-six years ago. “I was never able to make sure! When the right to be forgotten went to ten years, I wanted to take out a loan, but I had a second cancer five years ago, I said to myself, it’s over! While in the meantime, I could have repaid a loan. “If the decrees are published quickly, Catherine will finally be able to concretize her real estate project…
This progress also delights and reassures Céline Lis-Raoux, director of the association RoseUp, who fought hard to get it. “This “right to be forgotten” at five years old was a campaign promise from Macron, it did not fall on deaf ears! We saw the end of the five-year term coming with apprehension… But there was an alignment of the stars. A
Lemoine bill around borrower insurance was studied in an accelerated procedure, we could slip into it without it bringing together a measure that has nothing to do with sauerkraut. »
The proposal in hand, RoseUp therefore solicited deputies and senators with the argument: “today cancer patients, five years later they are cured. So why couldn’t they borrow to buy a home, start a business, take over the family farm? This “right to be forgotten” concerns all cancers and all types of loan. “I remember a farmer who had had lymphoma at a very young age, he wanted to buy back his parents’ agricultural property and discovered that he could not be insured,” says Catherine Simonin, also a member of France Assos Santé. For the patients, it’s a double pain: there is the announcement of the cancer, the very restrictive treatments, and when we start to go up the slope, our projects fall through. »
According to Liberation, the legislative follow-up should be quick: the text must be voted on in the National Assembly next Thursday and in the Senate on February 17. And the decrees should be published before May… if the president wants to keep his commitment.
The right to be forgotten for patients and former cancer patients goes from 10 to 5 years!
A huge social advance for these women and men who will be able to resume their daily lives without having to carry an unjustified cross.
Commitment of the President of the Republic kept.— Olivier Veran (@olivierveran) February 3, 2022
Finished the health questionnaire for a mortgage of 200,000 euros?
But there is a second measure that concerns patients, perhaps even more important, in this same bill. For all people who would like to borrow up to 200,000 euros for a real estate project, insurers will no longer be able to ask for a health questionnaire. “If you borrow as a couple, the amount rises to 400,000 euros, which represents 80% of mortgages,” insists Céline Lis-Raoux.
“Loan insurance was being demutualized,” she insists. Loans are historically low. But behind the head of gondola for those under 30, not fat, not thin, not smoking, who have no back pain or toothache, the most fragile pay for those who are well. A report showed that the cheapest insurances fell by 20% while for people over 55, it increased by 33%. It is absurd! This measure is therefore important since we will no longer know who is sick and who is not.
This means that a person currently suffering from cancer or another chronic illness will no longer need to specify it. “We must also think of all those people who cannot borrow because they are HIV-positive, diabetic, have treatment for life, but work, pay their taxes…”, resumes Céline Lis-Raoux. Indeed the “right to be forgotten” implies that there is an end to treatment (chemotherapy, operation, radiotherapy, but not reconstruction or hormone therapy).
The Assemblies have already adopted a common position: right to be forgotten reduced to 5 years for people with #Cancer and removal of the medical questionnaire for all up to €200,000/person. Our association, which has been dealing with these subjects for years, is delighted. @LisRaoux Our CP👇 pic.twitter.com/1lIbJzlN10
— RoseUp Association (@RoseUpAsso) February 3, 2022
Prohibition of nitrites in charcuterie?
The third advance (in another bill), which is not on the post-cancer side, but on the prevention side, concerns food. Indeed, for years, the League Against Cancer, the mobile application Yuka and the NGO
food watchare fighting for nitrites to be banned in France. These carcinogenic additives allow charcuterie to keep longer and display a beautiful pink hue. On Thursday, the bill tabled in particular by Richard Ramos to ban added nitrites and nitrates in our food was adopted in the National Assembly.
Farewell then sausage and ham? Some brands are already managing to do without this additive. “We are on individual behavior, but the collective must play the game to take measures to protect the population”, assures Catherine Simonin of the League against cancer.
And before this additive disappears from our plates, there are still a few steps. “The law that has just been passed commits the government and elected officials to making decisions in the coming months, just after the long-awaited report from the National Food Safety Agency (ANSES) see you next summer”, underlines the press release from the three organisations. The decree, which will have to set “a trajectory for reducing the maximum dose of nitro additives with regard to the proven risks for human health and a list and a timetable of products subject to a ban on the marketing of products incorporating nitro additives” n It is expected that for mid 2023… “We welcome these announcements which are going in the right direction, but the associations remain vigilant”, warns Catherine Simonin.