Advantages and Disadvantages of Health Insurance Portability

You know the importance of owning a health insurance policy, and along with that, you must also be aware that it is a hectic task to choose a suitable plan, out of various plans offered by numerous companies. You usually choose a health insurance policy based on certain factors like age, sum assured features of the plan, coverage, waiting period, and much more. But, sometimes it happens that the company you choose does not meet your expectations. Hence, in such cases, you can port your health insurance policy from one company to another. 

Porting of health insurance policy was started by the IRDAI based on the understanding that certain companies fail to meet an individual’s set of demands and in such scenarios, the policyholders deserve to switch to an insurer who they see to be more suitable than the existing one. 

Reasons That Lead To Health Insurance Portability 

Usually, it is due to the degradation in the delivery of the services that the policyholder chooses to port its health insurance policy. However, there are some other reasons too, that makes an individual choose another insurer over the existing one, let us look at some of these:

• Lack of transparency
• Increase in premium rates
• Late reimbursement claims
• The inconvenient claim settlement process 
• Insufficient coverage 
• Better offers and benefits from the other insurers. 

Advantages of Porting Health Insurance Policy 

Let us look at some of the advantages of porting your health insurance policy from one health insurance company to the other: 

1. You can customize the ported policy to make sure that the new insurer meets your demands. 
2. No-Claim-Bonus is added along with the existing sum assured to get the resultant sum insured under the new policy. 
3. The porting of health insurance policies does not take away the benefits already mentioned in your policy and hence, it remains the same.
4. Existing benefits are provided at lower premiums due to the growing competition in the health sector. 

Disadvantages of Porting Health Insurance Policy 

With the advantages come the disadvantages, therefore there are some cons of health insurance portability from one existing insurer to another. Some of the cons  are: 

1. Porting is applicable only when the date of renewal of your existing policy is approaching. 
2. If you add benefits to your ported policy, the amount of premium also tends to increase. 
3. While porting, you will be allowed to choose among similar products, in which case your choice becomes limited. 
4. If you change your policy from a group plan to an individual plan, then certain benefits of the policy will be taken away. 

Things To Keep In Mind While Porting A Health Insurance Policy  

Certain points are to be kept in mind while porting a health insurance policy from one insurer to the other. The points include: 

• Check the network of hospitals of the insurer that you are switching to, to avail of maximum benefits like cashless claims. 
• Make sure you check the premium amount and coverage of the new health insurance policy as sometimes the insurer increases the rate of premium or decreases the coverage under the policy, thereby affecting the original nature of your existing policy. 
• To avoid any delays in the porting process, make sure that you apply for the porting of a health insurance policy 45 days before the date of renewal of the existing policy. 
• You can port only the waiting period of the existing policy and not the additional features like pre-existing diseases and bonus credit points. 
• Go through all the limits, and terms or restrictions like age, disease, hospital, etc. 

Conclusion 

After you have ported the health insurance policy, make sure you go through the policy-related documents carefully without avoiding the inclusions and exclusion of the policy mentioned. While you are porting a health insurance policy, there might occur slight confusion regarding your choice of features and benefits and therefore, you must take extra care of the coverage provided under the new health insurance policy. 

Also Read:

Health Insurance Portability: A Comprehensive Guide

Benefits of Health Insurance Portability

Disclaimer: This article is issued in the general public interest and meant for general information purposes only. Readers are advised not to rely on the contents of the article as conclusive in nature and should research further or consult an expert in this regard.