Oncological Forgetfulness Regulation Approved: Forbidden to Reject or Overburden Cancer Survivors

The Executive Branch approved the regulations for Law No. 32357, the Law on oncological oblivion in the contracting of health services and insurance, through Supreme Decree No. 018-2026-SA, published on Wednesday, November 4, 2026, in the Official Gazette El Peruano (Legal Norms, pp. 59-64). The regulation establishes that anyone who proves to have overcome an oncological pathology may not be rejected, excluded, or subjected to surcharges when contracting insurance or a health service. The instrument bears the endorsement of the ministers of Health, Labor and Employment Promotion, Defense, and Interior, and was signed by President Keiko Sofía Fujimori Higuchi on November 3, 2026.

The regulation develops the mandate of the Sole Final Complementary Provision of Law No. 32357, which tasked the Executive Branch with its regulation, and is structured into five chapters, sixteen articles, two final complementary provisions, and one transitory provision. Its scope extends to IAFAS, UGIPRESS, public, private, and mixed IPRESS, and entities that offer services and insurance with oncological coverage. The declared purpose is to guarantee the right to equality and non-discrimination for people who have overcome cancer.

Five years without evidence of disease

The text defines “overcome oncological pathology” under two scenarios: a person diagnosed with localized or metastatic cancer who completed treatment with curative intent and, five years after its completion, presents no relapse or recurrence; and a person with relapse, recurrence, or a second neoplasm who, after completing the corresponding treatment and fulfilling the same period, shows no evidence of active disease.

The calculation of those five years begins on the date of completion of the treatment, with specific rules for localized or locally advanced disease and for metastatic or systemic disease, where it runs from the moment a complete response is confirmed. Hormonal therapy or other forms of subsequent adjuvant treatment do not prevent the calculation, and on November 6, 2026—according to the criteria of the treating oncologist—it is necessary to determine if that therapy had a preventive purpose.

A medical report as the key to access

Accreditation is carried out through a medical report issued by the treating oncologist at the IPRESS where the treatment took place, acting as a sworn statement and in accordance with Annex 1 of the regulation. The report is issued in establishments active in the RENIPRESS that have any of the fifteen service production units detailed in the regulation, including chemotherapy, radiotherapy, medical oncology outpatient consultation, surgical oncology, pediatric oncology, and hematology.

The deadlines set by the regulation are:

• Ten business days for the treating physician to issue the medical report from the date of the request.
• Ninety calendar days of validity for the report from its issuance.
• Fifteen business days for the IAFAS, insurer, or entity to formally respond to the contracting request.
• Forty-five calendar days for the General Office of Information Technology of MINSA to implement and make available the Oncological Forgetfulness IT Platform, counted from the day following the publication of the regulation.
• Fifteen business days to register in the platform the reports issued while it is not operational.

Rights, prohibitions, and sanctions

The regulation lists the rights of the contracting person: to contract under equal conditions, not to be subjected to exclusions, surcharges, or restrictive clauses due to overcome oncological history, for their information to be treated as sensitive personal data, and for contracts signed under this protection to remain in effect even in the event of a recurrence after the five-year period, in addition to receiving clear information with cultural and linguistic relevance.

At the same time, it prohibits providers and insurers from considering oncological history for contracting, incorporating individual clauses, exclusions, or surcharges, requiring examinations or documents other than the regulated medical report, and using that information to assess risk. The data are subject to Law No. 29733, whose data bank holder is MINSA, and the access of IAFAS is limited to verifying the authenticity and formal validity of the report, without extending to the clinical history or examination results.

Supervision falls to SUSALUD, which must attend to complaints and report its findings annually to MINSA. The decree incorporates as a very serious infringement numeral 5 of Annex I-A of the Infractions and Sanctions Regulation of the National Superintendency of Health, approved by Supreme Decree No. 031-2014-SA, referring to considering oncological history for exclusions, over-premiums, waiting periods, or denial of affiliation. The Superintendency of Banking, Insurance and AFP (SBS) shall ensure compliance when approving health policies with oncological coverage. IAFAS are responsible for a process of adapting contracts, policies, plans, and forms.

The impact is direct for thousands of oncological patients in the country: for the first time, oncological forgetfulness ceases to be a legal principle and has a procedure, an accreditable document, and a sanctioning authority. The regulation is also published on the Single Digital Platform of the Peruvian State and on the digital sites of MINSA, MTPE, Mindef, and Mininter on the same day of its appearance in El Peruano.

Source: El Peruano, Legal Norms of Wednesday, November 4, 2026, pp. 59-64 (official reference: 2571425-7).