Do you have to declare cancer you have recovered from when taking out insurance?

Question

José Manuel Alburquerque · Accepted Answer

In life insurance, no, if five years have passed since the treatment ended without a relapse. The insurer cannot take it into account or impose worse terms on you because of it. In any other insurance, such as private medical insurance, since 2023 the law has prohibited refusing to insure you, charging you more or treating you differently because you have had cancer, once those same five years have passed. Before the five years are up, if you are asked, you must tell the truth. How the five years are counted From the end of the radical treatment, such as surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy, not from the diagnosis. If you then continued with treatment to prevent a relapse, such as hormone therapy, the “Ministerio de Sanidad”, the Spanish Ministry of Health, says this must be assessed case by case. Ask your oncologist for a report stating the date on which the radical treatment ended. With no subsequent relapse. The Spanish Government can shorten that period for all types of cancer or for some, but so far it has not done so. These rules have applied since 30 June 2023 and are not retroactive. Even so, if your policy predates them and is renewed every year, the Ministry of Health takes the view that from the first renewal after that date the premium can no longer reflect cancer overcome more than five years earlier, nor can an exclusion on that ground be kept. What was declared or withheld when the policy was taken out is still judged under the law in force at the time. In life insurance You do not have to declare it even if the questionnaire asks about previous cancers. You do, however, have to declare any after-effects you have today, if the questionnaire asks about them. The insurer cannot use that information either when taking you on or when paying out. This is what is usually called the cancer survivors' right to be forgotten. In other types of insurance The “Ley de Contrato de Seguro”, Spain's Insurance Contract Act, only expressly says that it need not be declared in life insurance, but it prohibits the insurer from using it to turn you down, make the insurance more expensive or apply a different procedure to you. If an insurer imposes worse terms on you because of cancer you recovered from more than five years ago, ask it for the reason in writing and make a complaint, because in that case the law allows no exceptions. The law also prohibits discrimination on the grounds of other health conditions, such as HIV, except for justified and documented reasons.