Health insurance portability: the 2024 rules, timelines and what carries over

What is health insurance portability?

Portability is your right to move a health insurance policy from one insurer to another at renewal while keeping credit for the time you have already been covered. Without it, switching would restart every waiting period. With it, the new insurer counts the months you served with the old one.

Portability applies to indemnity policies, the kind that reimburse actual hospital bills. IRDAI’s 2024 policyholder-protection circular says insurers must allow it for individual, family floater and group health policies at the time of renewal. If you have a family policy, you must port the whole policy with all members.

What are the IRDAI rules and timelines for porting?

The rules set a window for applying and deadlines for both insurers. They come from IRDAI’s 2024 Master Circulars on health insurance and on protecting policyholders’ interests.

You may still see a “45 to 60 days” window quoted online. The current circular says 30 to 60 days. Applying early in the window gives you time to deal with medical tests or questions before your renewal date.

What carries over when you port, and what doesn’t

Your credit carries over for the sum insured you already had. IRDAI’s 2024 Master Circular on health insurance lists the credits that transfer:

• Sum insured. The amount you were covered for under the old policy.
• No-claim bonus. The bonus you had built up. How the new insurer shows it varies; see no-claim bonus.
• Specific waiting periods. Months served towards listed diseases and procedures.
• Pre-existing disease waiting period. Months served for conditions you declared. See pre-existing diseases.
• Moratorium period. IRDAI rules count ported cover towards the 60 continuous months after which a claim can’t be contested for non-disclosure, except for established fraud. See moratorium period.

What doesn’t carry over is the old product’s design. Once you port, the new policy’s room rent limit, co-payment, sub-limits, restoration and bonus rules apply. Any sum insured above your old amount is new cover, so waiting periods start from day one for that extra amount.

Credit is given for time served. If the new policy’s waiting period for a condition is longer than the old one, you usually serve only the months that remain.

Example: porting ₹5 lakh and adding ₹5 lakh

Example. You bought a ₹5 lakh policy on 15 January 2025 and renewed it on 15 January 2026. You declared diabetes on the proposal form. Your next renewal is due on 15 January 2027, so your window to apply is roughly 16 November to 16 December 2026. You port to a new insurer and take ₹10 lakh: ₹5 lakh carried over with two years’ credit, and ₹5 lakh of new cover. Both policies have a 24-month specific waiting period and a 36-month pre-existing disease waiting period.

Now suppose you need a diabetes-related hospitalisation in June 2028 and the admissible bill is ₹7 lakh. The ported ₹5 lakh has cleared its pre-existing disease wait, so it pays up to ₹5 lakh. The new ₹5 lakh is still inside its 36-month wait for diabetes, so it pays nothing for this claim. You pay ₹2 lakh, before any co-pay or other deductions. For an unrelated illness, such as dengue in the same month, the full ₹10 lakh would be available.

Can you port during the grace period or after your policy lapses?

Port before your renewal date if you can. If you apply later than 30 days before renewal, the new insurer doesn’t have to consider it. The circular says it may, even within 15 days of the renewal date, as long as there is no break in cover. Neither 2024 circular sets a separate rule for porting during the grace period.

If your renewal date is close and the new insurer hasn’t confirmed in writing that your new policy will start the day after the old one ends, renew with your current insurer instead. Renewing within the grace period, 30 days for annual premiums, protects your credits. Try porting again at the next renewal.

If your policy has lapsed beyond the grace period, there is nothing to port. That counts as a break in policy, and a new policy would usually restart every waiting period.

What are the disadvantages of porting?

The main risk is fresh underwriting. Under the 2024 Insurance Products Regulations, portability is subject to the new insurer’s Board-approved underwriting policy. It can ask for medical tests, add a loading or a specific exclusion, or decline. Other trade-offs:

• Different terms. The new policy may have a room rent limit, a co-pay or sub-limits your old one didn’t.
• Fresh waits on extra cover. Any increase in sum insured starts its own waiting periods, as the example shows.
• Features don’t transfer. Credit moves with you, but product features such as an extra bonus or a restoration rule don’t.
• Premium. The new insurer prices you at your current age, under its own rates.
• Timing risk. If the new insurer delays or declines close to your renewal date, you may have to renew where you are.

Porting vs migration within the same insurer

Migration is moving to a different product with the same insurer, and the same credits carry over. IRDAI’s 2024 Master Circular on health insurance says sum insured, no-claim bonus, specific and pre-existing disease waiting periods and the moratorium transfer to the migrated policy. Under the 2024 Insurance Products Regulations, the insurer may underwrite a migration if you haven’t been continuously covered for 36 months.

Migration also comes up when an insurer withdraws a product. Existing customers then get a one-time option to renew the old product, if the renewal falls within 90 days of the withdrawal, or to migrate to another product.

Check before you port

1. Your current schedule: the policy start date, the date you first took cover with no break, the sum insured, any no-claim bonus and the renewal due date.
2. Your old proposal form: every condition you declared. Disclose all of them, and anything new, on the new proposal form.
3. The new insurer’s Customer Information Sheet: items 7 and 8 for waiting periods, sub-limits, co-pay and any deductible.
4. The new policy wording: search for “Portability”, “Room Rent”, “Co-payment”, “Sub-limit”, “Cumulative Bonus” and “Restore”.
5. Written confirmation: ask the new insurer to state the waiting-period credit, in months, for each member and condition.
6. Start date: make sure the new policy starts the day after the old one ends.

Where people get caught out

• Not disclosing a condition on the new proposal form. Porting means a fresh proposal form. Leaving out a condition can lead to a non-disclosure dispute at claim time, even though insurers share your underwriting and claim history.
• Applying too late. Once you are inside 30 days of renewal, the new insurer doesn’t have to consider the request.
• Cancelling the old policy before the new one is issued. Wait for the new policy before you stop paying the old one.
• Assuming the extra cover is ready to use. Only the ported amount carries credit.
• Comparing premium only. A cheaper policy with a room rent limit or co-pay can cost more at claim time than you save.