Italy will pass a law on the “right to be forgotten” (RTBF) for cancer survivors, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni pledged on Tuesday in a move designed to shield recovering patients from discrimination by banks or insurance companies.

According to campaigners, there are more than 900,000 cancer survivors in Italy who may face difficulties getting insurance or loans or applying for adoption because of their health history.

Meloni said in a statement that his government was looking “very carefully” at the draft laws on RTBF, and said he had asked Health Minister Orazio Schillaci to follow their progress through parliament and provide them with the “necessary support”. The work was assigned.

“Our goal is to have in the shortest possible time a law that can respond to an extremely real problem that affects the lives of many Italians,” said the prime minister.

The proposals would allow cured cancer patients not to share information about their past status with financial institutions, or adoption authorities, provided 5-10 years have passed since the end of their medical treatment.

Similar laws already exist in France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium and Portugal, according to the Italian Medical Oncology Association (AIOM), which is campaigning for reform.