Waiting period from diagnosis for mortgage insurance issued to cancer survivors
- PDF / 1,189,449 Bytes
- 26 Pages / 439.37 x 666.142 pts Page_size
- 11 Downloads / 135 Views
Waiting period from diagnosis for mortgage insurance issued to cancer survivors Antoine Soetewey1 · Catherine Legrand1 · Michel Denuit1 · Geert Silversmit2 Received: 10 February 2020 / Revised: 9 September 2020 / Accepted: 3 November 2020 © EAJ Association 2020
Abstract The Massart (J Cancer Policy 15:70–71, 2018) testimonial illustrates the difficulties faced by patients having survived cancer to access mortgage insurance securing home loan. Data collected by national registries nevertheless suggest that excess mortality due to some types of cancer becomes moderate or even negligible after some waiting period. In relation to the insurance laws passed in France and more recently in Belgium creating a right to be forgotten for cancer survivors, the present study aims to determine the waiting period after which standard premium rates become applicable. Compared to the French and Belgian laws, a waiting period starting at diagnosis (as recorded in national databases) is favored over a waiting period starting at the end of the therapeutic treatment protocol. This aims to avoid disputes when a claim is filed. Since diagnosis is often recorded in the official registry database, as is the case for the Belgian Cancer Registry, its date is reliable and unquestionable in case of claim. Based on 28,994 melanoma and thyroid cancer cases recorded by the Belgian Cancer Registry, the length of the waiting period is assessed with the help of widely-accepted tools from biostatistics, including relative survival models and time-to-cure indicators. It turns out for instance that a waiting period of 4 years after diagnosis is enough for 30-year-old thyroid cancer patients. This appears to be similar to the 3-year period starting at the end of treatment protocol according to the Belgian law in such a case. Keywords Term insurance · Impaired lives · Cancer · Home loan · Right to be forgotten
* Antoine Soetewey [email protected] 1
Institute of Statistics, Biostatistics and Actuarial Sciences, Louvain Institute of Data Analysis and Modeling in Economics and Statistics, UCLouvain, Louvain‑la‑Neuve, Belgium
2
Belgian Cancer Registry, Brussels, Belgium
13
Vol.:(0123456789)
A. Soetewey et al.
1 Introduction Property loans are often accompanied with mortgage insurance that pays the balance of the loan if the mortgagor dies. Coverage is usually awarded in the form of term insurance with decreasing sum insured, with the amount of death benefit diminishing as the debt decreases. This is common practice in Belgium, with about 170,000 new mortgage loans per year, mainly contracted by young adults acquiring their first family house (statistics from the Belgian Central Credit Register indicate that 36% of new mortgage loans in 2017 were contracted by borrowers younger than 35 and about 68% were granted to borrowers younger than 45). Based on answers to a health questionnaire, insurers evaluate applicant’s health status and either impose surcharges in case of impaired lives or refuse to cover the risk. Filling such health
Data Loading...
