The right to forget illness

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Before 2020, buying a home or business premises was an impossible proposition for people with serious medical conditions. Having had cancer, even several years previously, or suffering from hepatitis C systematically led to complications when taking out the insurance backing the mortgage. The insurer could either refuse to cover the risk, which was deemed too great, or demand an additional premium, i.e. a higher amount to take account of the risk. In both cases, the project fell through. "An additional premium adds several tens of thousands of euros to the cost of the property purchase and really prevents it from going ahead, " explains Anne Goeres, Director of the Fondatioun Kriibskrank Kanner (children with cancer).

This meant a double penalty for people who had been ill, because even if they were freed from heavy and painful treatment, they could not hope to return to all aspects of a normal life. "I know of former patients who decided to buy a property, but not as a couple: the loan was in the name of the other person in the couple to avoid having to pay an additional premium. But they were then penalised because only one salary was taken into account."