Find the answers to your questions about life insurance after cancer or other serious illnesses. Do life insurance companies cover survivors? Are prices for such coverage more expensive? For how long? Why?  Get answers and see what a life insurance broker can do for you.

What about life insurance after cancer?
Assessment of the situation

Current statistics predict that around 50% of Quebecers will need to fight cancer during their lifetime.

Fortunately, 64% of them will win the battle and survive.

The common factor among all cancer survivors is the difficulty they face in taking out life insurance, home insurance, a mortgage, auto loan, or any other consumer loan as a result of cancer.

Why is it so difficult to get insurance after a cancer diagnosis?

The majority of people who have been diagnosed with cancer or any other critical illness may be automatically refused life insurance. Lucky individuals who get approved for coverage are charged much higher premiums.

Even those who try to subscribe to life insurance without a medical examination have to answer certain questions about their health before being approved.

For the insurer, even if the doctor declares you to be completely cured of cancer, you represent a risk of making a claim in the future. Thus, the company seeks to protect itself by refusing your application or by charging significantly higher premiums.

From the insurance company’s perspective, it is a bit like insuring your house while it is on fire!

Nowadays, however, some types of cancer have particularly high remission rates and almost no risk of recurrence. A clause in the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms allow insurance companies to discriminate against certain individuals for health reasons.

What is « the right to be forgotten »?

Considering that this is, in most cases, purely discriminatory and must, therefore, be eliminated, some political figures tried to amend in 2016 the Quebec Charter of Rights, including the « Right to be forgotten » in Quebec.

Thus, like in France, the « right to be forgotten » targets:

• Survivors of certain types of cancer with the lowest risk of recurrence such as:
  • Skin
  • Breast
  • Uterus
  • Thyroid
  • Testicles
• The abolition of medical history after a waiting period as determined by the Minister of Health or Finance. For example:
  • 15 years after the end of the treatment of an adult
  • A maximum of 5 years after the end of treatment of a young person who contracts cancer or another critical illness before the age of 18.

In fact, 15 years after being cured, a person is under no obligation to disclose to an insurer that he previously had cancer when applying for life insurance.

The Quebec Charter of Rights could not be amended.

Where is the « right to be forgotten » in 2018?

Political leaders return to the issue in 2018, but differently this time.

Given that only the insurance industry has the legal capacity to discriminate against clients, the proponents of the « right to be forgotten » are trying to include an article (no. 3.1) in Bill 141. In fact, certain aspects of insurance were tackled in this bill.

The Minister of Finance expressed concern for life insurance for cancer survivors but it is « not the right legislation ».

The fight continues!

Let your life insurance broker fight for you

Find easily and quickly the life insurance that suits you by using the form on this page.

With direct access to more than twenty life insurance companies in their network of contacts, the insurance brokers and insurers that make up the partners of Compare Life Insurance will look for a protection for you.

Do not be defeated! Even if your application for life insurance has been refused by multiple companies, broker partners of Compare Insurances Online will still try to find you an insurance that suits your needs and your budget.