Advantages and Disadvantages of Health Insurance Policy Portability
The present or existing insurer should not cancel the existing policy until you receive a confirmed policy from a new insurer or there is a specific request written from the insured.
You have approach the insurer from whom you are going to buy the policy atleast 45 days before your policy expiry date, but not more than 90 days.
To protect the interst of the customers, the IRDAI has allowed health insurance policies Portability.
It is the right of the policy holders, including family members under the cover to shift the policy from the present company to another insurance company along with the transfer of the credit gained for pre-existing conditions and also with the time bound exclusions.
Industry experts say that the policyholders can go for porting their policy if they doesnt like the present insurance company or not satisfied with their present policy.
Hence, in case you aren’t satisfied with the services of your current insurer or else if you are searching for extra capabilities to your coverage which aren’t to be had withinside the present coverage, then you can port your health insurance policy at the time of renewal with any General Insurance company or any Health Insurance company without losing any previous benfits.
Note that you need to approach the insurer from whom you desire to buy for the policy atleast 45 days earlier and not more than 90 days before the expiry of your policy.
Advantages of Portability
According to Supriya Rathi, a Wholetime Director and Anand Rathi, the Insurance Brokers, portability of the policy can be of great help for the policyholder in the case of
- Dissatisfaction with the Policy servicing or Claims which are provided by the Insurer
- Lack of Transparency in case of the coverage situations or clauses
- Better and aggressive providing in phrases of Policy features
- Time-bound exclusions within the present policy, waiting period gained in the present policies, may be ported to a new policy.
Rathi points out that, the portability option will be only at the time of renewals, and the policy must be in force without any break-in insurance. And the application for the new insurance company for portability has to be made at least 45 days before the date of renewal.
Rathi also says that the regulator has further clarified that if the final results on reputation of portability is pending with the new insurer, the present policy need to be extended if asked by the policyholder for a short period by accepting a pro-rata premium for a short period. “The current insurer must not cancel the present policy untill such time, a confirmed policy received from the new insurer or there may be a selected written request from the insured.
Portability is limited to the products which cover similar risks, like basic reimbursement to basic reimbursement policies. And also, there’s no extra cost involved in the case of portability. The policyholder will pay only the premium opted for.
Individual persons, along with the family members covered under the an indemnity primarily based group health insurance coverage, has the right to migrate from a such group policy to an individual policy or a family floater policy before choosing portability.