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Health Insurance Portability
You bought health insurance 5 years ago and since then your insurer has raised premiums by 40%, the customer service has deteriorated, your preferred hospital left their network, and every claim feels like a battle. You want to switch but you are afraid of losing 5 years of waiting period benefits that you have carefully served. The fear is understandable but largely unnecessary — because health insurance portability in India, introduced by IRDAI in 2011, protects exactly these accumulated benefits. Here is everything you need to know about switching health insurers without losing what you have built.
What Health Insurance Portability Actually Guarantees
When IRDAI introduced health insurance portability regulations, the core guarantee was this: a policyholder who moves from one insurer to another cannot be required to re-serve waiting periods that have already been completed under the previous policy. The new insurer must give credit for the waiting period already served, up to the sum insured of the existing policy.
This means if you have held a health insurance policy with a 4-year PED waiting period and you are in your third year, you carry 3 years of credit to the new insurer. The new insurer can only make you wait 1 more year for the same PED — not restart the 4-year clock from zero. For pre-existing conditions you have been managing — diabetes, hypertension, thyroid — this accumulated credit is genuinely valuable and not lost upon porting.
What portability does not guarantee: the new insurer cannot be forced to offer the same premium as the old insurer. The new insurer will assess your current health profile — current age, current health conditions, any new diagnoses since the original policy — and price accordingly. Premium may be the same, lower, or higher depending on these factors. Portability protects your benefits, not your price.
Why People Port — The Legitimate Reasons
Premium increases at renewal are the most common trigger. Health insurance premiums increase with age — this is normal and expected. But some insurers raise premiums more aggressively than others, particularly after a year of high claims. If your premium has jumped 25 to 35% in a single renewal without any change in coverage, comparing alternatives is legitimate. However, before porting solely for a lower premium, ensure the new plan’s features and network are at least equivalent to your current plan.
Poor claim experience is the second major trigger. If your insurer has repeatedly delayed, questioned, or partially rejected legitimate claims, porting to a more claim-friendly insurer with a better Claim Settlement Ratio is a sound decision. Check the CSR and ICR (Incurred Claim Ratio) of candidate new insurers before porting.
Inadequate coverage is increasingly common as people become more knowledgeable. Buying a ₹3 lakh plan 8 years ago made sense then — today the same plan is inadequate for any serious illness in a private hospital. Porting allows you to move to a higher sum insured plan while retaining waiting period credit for the original sum insured amount.
Network hospital changes are another legitimate reason — if the hospital you regularly use has left your current insurer’s network, porting to an insurer whose network includes your preferred hospitals is sensible.
The Portability Process — Step by Step
The timing of the portability application is the most critical operational detail. You must apply to the new insurer at least 45 days before your existing policy’s renewal date. This 45-day window allows the new insurer time to process your application, conduct medical underwriting if required, verify your existing policy details with the old insurer through IRDAI’s Health Insurance Portability portal, and issue a decision.
If you miss the 45-day window — even by a week — you have two options: renew with your existing insurer for one more year and apply for portability 45 days before the next renewal, or apply for a fresh policy with the new insurer without portability credit and restart the waiting period. Missing the timing window is the most common portability mistake and it is entirely avoidable with calendar reminders.
Once you apply to the new insurer for portability, provide complete details: your existing policy number, insurer name, sum insured, years held, and any claims made during the policy period. The new insurer accesses the IRDAI portability portal to verify this information with your existing insurer. Your existing insurer is obligated to respond to the new insurer’s information request within 7 days.
The new insurer then conducts underwriting — which may involve a fresh medical examination depending on your age (typically above 45) and any new health conditions since your original policy was issued. Based on underwriting, the new insurer issues an offer — accepted coverage terms, premium, and any conditions. You review and accept or decline. If you accept, the new policy activates from the next renewal date and you do not have a gap in coverage.
What Happens to No Claim Bonus During Portability
The portability regulations require the new insurer to accept the waiting period credit but do not specifically mandate carrying over the No Claim Bonus accumulated with the old insurer. In practice, some insurers honour the NCB during portability — effectively giving you a higher starting sum insured — while others do not. This varies by insurer and is a negotiable point. When requesting portability, specifically ask the new insurer whether they will carry forward your NCB and to what extent. Their answer may influence your final choice of new insurer.
Group to Individual Portability — The Often-Missed Right
One of the most underutilised provisions in IRDAI’s portability framework is the right to port from a group health insurance policy (employer-provided) to an individual policy when leaving employment. Within 90 days of leaving a job — whether through resignation, layoff, retirement, or company closure — you can port your group policy coverage to an individual policy and carry over accumulated waiting period benefits from the group policy.
This is enormously valuable because employer group policies often cover pre-existing conditions from Day 1 with no waiting period. If you have been with an employer’s group policy for 4 years, you have 4 years of effective PED waiting period served (even though the group policy itself may have had no waiting period). When you port to an individual policy within 90 days of leaving employment, a reasonable insurer will recognise this continuous coverage period.
Most people who leave employment simply lose their health insurance and buy a fresh individual policy with a new 2 to 4 year waiting period. They are unaware that the group-to-individual portability right exists. It must be exercised within 90 days of employment ending — after that, you are buying a fresh policy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I increase my sum insured when porting? Yes, you can request a higher sum insured when porting. The waiting period credit from your existing policy applies only up to the original sum insured level. Any additional sum insured above the original amount is treated as a new application and carries a fresh waiting period for that incremental amount. For example, if you port a ₹5 lakh policy to a ₹10 lakh plan, the PED waiting period credit applies to ₹5 lakh worth of coverage, and the additional ₹5 lakh has a fresh waiting period.
My existing insurer refuses to provide my policy history to the new insurer. What can I do? This is a regulatory violation. IRDAI mandates that existing insurers respond to portability information requests within 7 days. If your existing insurer refuses or delays, file a complaint with IRDAI’s Grievance Cell (igms.irda.gov.in) and with your state’s Insurance Ombudsman. IRDAI takes portability obstruction seriously. You can also request policy documents directly and submit them to the new insurer as evidence while the regulatory complaint is addressed.
If I have made large claims in the previous year, will any insurer accept my portability application? Claim history affects new insurer underwriting decisions. If you have made very large claims — say ₹4 lakh on a ₹5 lakh policy in the previous year — the new insurer may offer coverage with premium loading, specific condition exclusions, or in rare cases may decline. They cannot, however, simply refuse to consider your application. If one insurer declines, apply to others — underwriting criteria vary between companies and one insurer’s decline does not mean all insurers will decline.
