IRDA has permitted health insurance portability from July 2011. There are several concerns about how it will work and whether it will really work. Moneylife Foundation took the lead to initiate a public debate on this important regulatory change and proposes to send a Position Paper to IRDA with consumer concerns and suggestions to ensure that health insurance portability guidelines are comprehensive and implementable. A packed house—over 150 people—attended the seminar at Rachana Sansad auditorium in Prabhadevi, Mumbai. The panellists talked about the issues related to portability and answered questions from the audience in a highly interactive session. The consensus of the panel was that we need to create a centralised insurance databank forthwith; while portability is a good step forward, IRDA needs to clarify a host of issues if portability has to succeed. The panellists also agreed that the way forward is not standardisation of insurance products, but innovation that can make portability attractive for customers.
Based on the feedback received at the seminar, Moneylife has sent a questionnaire to IRDA to get clarifications about the initiative to create a centralised insurance databank, concerns about getting medical history from some insurers within seven days due to lack of electronic format and not having a centralised system for keeping individual data, possibility of charging a higher premium due to porting the policy itself, mis-selling with portability, the need to offer comparison of mediclaim policies across insurers on the IRDA website and other issues arising from portability guidelines. We had not received a response till the writing of this ‘Cover Story’.
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