Pros And Cons of Health Insurance Portability

In today’s time, health insurance is an essential aspect of our lives. High costs of treatment, diagnosis and the pandemic of Covid-10 has made us understand how crucial it is to have a standing health insurance policy. While financial and medical security is one of the many perks of an insurance policy, the IRDA in India has recently come up with a convenient option of health insurance portability.

Health insurance portability allows policyholders to port their present health insurance plan from one insurer to the other, as well as change their cover from an individual plan to a family floater plan and vice versa. But such facilities are devoid of pros and cons and in this article you can learn all about the strengths and drawbacks of health insurance portability.

Pros of Health Insurance Portability

The following list will help you to understand the pros of health insurance portability.

• Customization Option

The primary aspect of health insurance portability is the customization option that allows a policyholder to change or modify the terms and conditions of a policy as per their financial and medical requirements.

• Augmented Sum Assured

When an individual ports their health insurance policy from one insurance provider to another or from an individual cover option to a family floater, the existing sum assured amount is added to their new sum assured and no claim bonus, thereby resulting in a higher claim amount.

• Continued Benefits

Policyholders can continue to receive their benefits from earlier plans even after they opt for portability.

• Lower Premiums

Since health insurance portability has been approved by the IRDA in India, tere has been an immense competition between different insurance companies for securing the maximum number of policyholders. For this reason, once you decide to port your health insurance policy, you can receive extra benefits at a comparatively lower rate of premium as well.

Cons of Health Insurance Portability

Not everything that glitters is gold and hence, health insurance portability also comes with its share of cons. These are as follows -

• Time Restrictions

A prominent drawback of the portability feature is that policyholders can port their policies only when the renewal date of their existing policy is approaching.

• Limited Choice

Policyholders have the option of choosing products similar to their type of insurance policies. This means that their coverage and insurance type has to correspond exactly with their initial policies.

• Higher Premiums

While this feature varies from company to company, sometimes, the option of availing greater benefits are associated with the payment of a higher rate of premium.

• Less Advantages

In case you decide to port your insurance policy from an individual to family floater plan and vice versa, in some cases you might have to give up on certain advantages that you used to enjoy earlier.

Take Away

These are in short, the major pros and cons of health insurance portability and will hopefully aid you in taking this decision. There are certain rules and regulations that you need to be mindful of while opting for this feature. For example, you should be careful about the kind of insurance, company, premiums and bonuses promised to you before you port an insurance policy. The choice that you make will ultimately be contingent upon your financial and medical needs, and whether you port it or not will be your personal decision.

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.