Portugal's Direito ao Esquecimento for Mortgage and Consumer Insurance — Cancer Survivors Beyond 10 Years, Childhood Cases at 5, and the 2-Year Mitigated-Disease Threshold for HIV, Diabetes and Hepatitis C Now Live Under ASF Supervision

The legal regime that strips insurers of the right to ask about — or price on — health histories that meet specified recovery thresholds is now fully embedded in Portugal's mortgage and consumer-credit insurance market, and the Autoridade de Supervisão de Seguros e Fundos de Pensões has confirmed the supervisory perimeter. The framework, formally the Direito ao Esquecimento, applies exclusively to life-insurance contracts linked to mortgage credit and consumer credit — the underwriting layer that sits between bank credit decisions and the household-protection insurance the borrower must take out.

The Two Concepts: Superação and Mitigação

The law splits health histories into two categories with different time thresholds and different rules:

Superação (overcoming). The condition is resolved. The classical case is 'cancro tratado e sem recidiva após determinado período' — cancer treated and free of recurrence after a specified period. The condition either no longer exists or its long-term effects are limited enough that no aggravated health risk remains.

Mitigação (mitigation). The condition persists but its effects are substantially reduced and controlled through continuous, effective treatment. The canonical examples are controlled HIV, managed diabetes and stabilised hepatitis C.

The Time Thresholds That Matter

Three thresholds anchor the operational regime:

• General superação: 10 years after the conclusion of treatment
• Superação for cases occurring before age 21: 5 years after treatment ends
• Mitigação: 2 years of continuous, effective treatment

Once the threshold passes, the policyholder gains specific rights that override the standard insurance underwriting flow.

The Operational Rights

Once a candidate-insured meets the thresholds, three rules bind the insurer:

• The insurer cannot collect or process information about the mitigated or overcome condition
• The candidate may answer 'no' when asked in the health-questionnaire phase about the prior condition
• The insurer cannot apply premium increases or coverage exclusions based on the resolved condition

Practically, the regime closes the loop on a structural insurance-market failure — that anyone who beat cancer 12 years ago, or who lives with controlled HIV under steady antiretroviral therapy, has, until recently, faced premium loadings or outright refusal at the moment of taking on a mortgage.

Supervision and Dispute Resolution

The ASF — the Portuguese insurance supervisor — oversees enforcement at the conduct-of-business level. Disputes between policyholder and insurer over whether a specific case meets the superação or mitigação threshold can be referred to CIMPAS, the insurance-sector arbitration centre. CIMPAS rulings carry binding effect for insurers that subscribe to the centre, which covers the bulk of the Portuguese insurance market.

What This Means for Expats

• The regime applies to mortgage-linked life insurance. Foreign residents financing a Portuguese property purchase through a Portuguese bank routinely take out the credit-linked life insurance the lender requires. The Direito ao Esquecimento applies to that policy from day one.
• Translation matters. The health questionnaire (questionário clínico) is in Portuguese; if your mortgage process is being run in English, ensure the questionnaire wording in your contract reflects the law — and that your broker has flagged any superação or mitigação case directly.
• Documentation supports the claim. A medical certificate confirming end-of-treatment date for superação cases — or attesting to two years of continuous, effective treatment for mitigação — is the operational document; bring it to the underwriting meeting.
• The 5-year childhood window is generous. Foreign residents who survived a cancer diagnosis as a minor face a substantially shorter wait than the adult 10-year threshold. The regime accepts the original treatment-termination date even when the diagnosis pre-dated the family's move to Portugal.
• If denied, escalate. The CIMPAS route is structured for sub-€10,000 disputes and runs faster than the judicial path. Direito ao Esquecimento cases are explicitly inside the CIMPAS competence envelope.