Definition
Health Insurance Portability
Portability lets you switch your health insurance to another insurer while retaining accrued benefits like waiting-period credit.
Portability allows you to move your health policy from one insurer to another (or between plans of the same insurer) without losing the continuity benefits you have built up — such as credit for waiting periods already served and accumulated no-claim/cumulative bonus.
You must apply for porting well before renewal, and the new insurer underwrites the request; it can decline or load the premium based on your health, but it cannot make you restart waiting periods that you have already completed. The process is overseen by IRDAI rules.
Portability is useful if you are dissatisfied with service, claim experience, premiums or features, letting you switch without the penalty of fresh waiting periods that buying a brand-new policy would impose.
Related terms
- Waiting PeriodA waiting period is the time after a health policy starts during which claims for specified conditions or treatments are not payable.
- Pre-Existing Disease (PED)A pre-existing disease is any condition, ailment or injury diagnosed or treated before buying a health policy, typically subject to a waiting period.
- Health InsuranceHealth insurance covers medical and hospitalisation expenses in exchange for an annual premium.
Plain-English explainer from The Dispatch Investors Encyclopedia. General information, not financial advice.