Health cover portability

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has informed that under health insurance policies during the FY 2014-15, 28.87 crore lives were insured. It said it has been implemented the portability of health insurance policies with effect from October 1, 2011.

The premium that may be payable towards the new health insurance policy after porting would depend on the terms and conditions of the new policy. However, as per the Regulations stipulated by IRDAI while accepting a policy which is porting-in, insurer shall not levy any additional loading or charges exclusively for the purpose of porting.

Under the portability scheme, an individual health insurance policy holder (including family cover) can transfer the credit gained by the insured for pre-existing conditions and time-bound exclusions if the policyholder chooses to switch from one insurer to another insurer or from one plan to another plan of the same insurer, provided the previous policy has been maintained without any break.

When you change your health insurance policy from one insurance company to another, you don’t have to lose the benefits you have accumulated. In the past in health insurance policies, such a move resulted in losing benefits like the waiting period for covering "Pre-existing Diseases".

Now IRDA protects you by giving you the right to port your policy to any other insurer of your choice. It has laid down that your new insurer “shall allow for credit gained by the insured for pre-existing condition(s) in terms of waiting period”. This applies not only when you move from one insurer to another but also from one plan to another with the same insurer.

However, one can port the policy only at the juncture of renewal. That is, the new insurance period will be with the new insurance company. Apart from the waiting period credit, all other terms of the new policy including the premium are at the discretion of the new insurance company.

At least 45 days before your renewal is due, one has to write to one’s old insurance company requesting a shift, specifying the company to which one wants to shift the policy. However, one should have renewed the policy without a break (there is a 30 day grace period if porting is under process)