Waiting period from diagnosis for mortgage insurance issued to cancer survivors (Q825295)

Cancer patient survival has improved over the last few decades, with an increasing proportion of patients being cured for many types of cancer. Providing coverage in case cancer is diagnosed or to long-term cancer survivors is therefore of prime importance, for the society but also for the insurance industry since proper coverage of such risks may well produce attractive returns. Authors of the paper analyze survival (i.e., time to death) for cancer patients beyond diagnosis according to a number of covariates. The non-parametric Kaplan-Meier estimator is used to estimate the overall survival function \(S\), without distinguishing according to causes of death. Authors of the paper show that for some types of cancer (with melanoma and thyroid as examples), survivors actually have a survival comparable to that of the general population. In addition, authors demonstrate that patients having survived long enough to some types of cancer (still with melanoma and thyroid as examples) can access life insurance market at standard insurance rates, contrarily to the common belief within the actuarial community. The technical waiting period appears to be relatively short, and shorter compared to the 10-year period specified in the Belgian law. All considerations of the paper are based on survival data recorded by the \textit{Belgian Cancer Registry} and the Belgian population life tables, obtained from the \textit{Belgian Statistical Office}.