Skip to main content

Health Insurance Portability

Buy Gold Mutual Funds

Invest Mutual Funds Online

Download Mutual Fund Application Forms

Call 0 94 8300 8300 (India)

Health Insurance Portability

 

A NEXUS between insurance companies, their distributors and agents, seems to have torpedoed insurance regulator's move to allow portability of health insurance policies to ensure competition, quality of service and to rein in premiums.

While insurance agents do not encourage portability for lack of incentives, it's fine with insurers who need not face competition.

Lack of awareness has only come to advantage of insurers, their agents and distributors.

Though not many speak about this vicious ring in which policyholders are caught in, brokers' community has been forthright in their demand seeking commission on portability.

At present, neither agents nor brokers are allowed any commission on new health insurance cases that are ported. Insurance Brokers' Association of India (IBAI) has approached the regulator on this issue and we expect some conclusion very soon.

The commission earned by brokers on new health insurance business is around 17.5 per cent while individual agents get somewhere around 15 per cent. On ported policies, they may not be entitled for commission but from the second year, they do get the agent's or broker's commission.

Traditionally, agency channel generates highest business for insurance companies. Brokers and corporate agents contribute a substantive chunk while the direct sales account for about 10-20 per cent.

So, the companies also seem to have not consciously pushed for insurance portability as in the case of Ulips that virtually vanished from the market. Without offering any explanation for very low level of portability, insurance companies do put the blame on their agents for not processing porting cases.

Intermediaries like brokers, individuals and corporate agents play a key role in making health insurance portability a success. As agents or brokers do not get any commission on the ported health insurance business for first year, the motivation is lacking. Insurance companies are also required to be more proactive in their approach to educate customers about porting facility.

However, there are hardly any signs of this happening anytime soon. Internationally, health insurance portability is very popular and in case of dissatisfaction with services of health insurance providers, policyholders can easily switch from one company to another unlike in India where the unholy nexus of insurers, intermediaries and agents has made it next to impossible.

Also, in countries like the UK and the US, customers are covered under group scheme as their employees pay for health insurance.

Health insurance portability was allowed beginning October 1, 2011 wherein a customer can move from one insurance company to another along with accrued benefits such as no claim bonus and waiting period for pre-existing diseases.

As an industry, the number of porting requests have been low -for individual insurance companies the numbers are even lower. For example, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance processed around 2,000 successful porting requests while Max Bupa Health Insurance Company accepted around 75 per cent of total porting requests. Insurance companies are allowed to reject new portability cases depending on risk profile but they have to give a valid reason for it. 

Happy Investing!!

 

We can help. Call 0 94 8300 8300 (India)

 

Leave your comment with mail ID and we will answer them

                        OR

You can write back to us at prajnacapital [at] gmail [dot] com

---------------------------------------------

Invest Mutual Funds Online

Transact Mutual Fund Online

Download Mutual Fund Application Forms from all AMCs

Download Mutual Fund Application Forms

Best Performing Mutual Funds

    1. Largecap Funds        Invest Online
      1. DSP BlackRock Top 100 Fund
      2. ICICI Prudential Focused Blue Chip Fund
      3. Birla Sun Life Front Line Equity Fund
    2. Large and Midcap Funds     Invest Online
      1. ICICI Prudential Dynamic Plan
      2. HDFC Top 200 Fund
      3. UTI Dividend Yield Fund
    1. Mid and SmallCap Funds    Invest Online
      1. Reliance Equity Opportunities Fund
      2. DSP BlackRock Small & Midcap Fund
      3. Sundaram Select Midcap
      4. IDFC Premier Equity Fund
    1. Small and MicroCap Funds             Invest Online
      1. DSP BlackRock MicroCap Fund
    1. Sector Funds              Invest Online
      1. Reliance Banking Fund
      2. Reliance Banking Fund
    1. Gold Mutual Funds             Invest Online
      1. Relaince Gold Savings Fund
      2. ICICI Prudential Regular Gold Savings Fund
      3. HDFC Gold Fund

Popular posts from this blog

Mutual Fund Review: Taurus Tax Shield

    Taurus Tax Shield has seen a turnaround in performance since 2007, but still remains a volatile offering… The fund has seen a turnaround in its performance since 2007 and has delivered impressively during market rallies since then. The portfolio is also more diversified. It contained its downfall to an average level in 2008 but is still one of the most volatile offerings in this category. Bold investors can look at this fund.   Strategy The fund manager invests across the market capitalisation and sectors. The selection of stocks is made on the basis of long-term business prospects and value creation. Fund Insight Launched in March 1996, the fund was a laggard with just two annual outperformances. Concentrated stock bets and high exposure to mid and small caps led to it being hit harder during market downturns. The number of stocks in the portfolio never exceeded 20 and it was not rare to see the top 5 holdings account for around 60 per cent of the portfolio. After b...
Read more

NRIs and direct taxes code (DTC)

DTC Proposes To Do Away With Special Provision That Allows NRIs Liberalised Duration Of Stay In Country      THE new direct taxes code could bring a large number of global Indians under the tax net, as it does away with a provision that allowed individuals to escape tax in any country citing double tax avoidance.    The new legislation, introduced in Parliament on Monday, says an individual shall be a resident of India in any financial year if he is in the country for more than 59 days in that year, and has been has been India for more 365 days in four preceding financial years. A number of Indian industrialists including Vedanta's Anil Agarwal and Essar's Ravi Ruia have acquired non-resident status over the years.    The DTC has only attempted to clean up the provision in line with the laws globally. A phrase "being outside India" in the existing income tax law exempted individuals who stay outside the country for six months from paying taxes. This was prone ...
Read more

Tata Fixed Income Portfolio Fund dividend

Invest In Tax Saving Mutual Funds Online Download Tax Saving Mutual Fund Application Forms Buy Gold Mutual Funds Call 0 94 8300 8300 (India)       Tata Mutual Fund has announced dividend under the dividend option of Tata Fixed Income Portfolio Scheme B2 Plan A-DQ, Tata Fixed Income Portfolio Scheme B2 Reg-DQ and Tata Fixed Income Portfolio Scheme B2 Direct-DQ. The record date has been fixed as August 29, 2013. Happy Investing!! We can help. Call 0 94 8300 8300 (India) Leave your comment with mail ID and we will answer them OR You can write back to us at PrajnaCapital [at] Gmail [dot] Com --------------------------------------------- Invest in Tax Saving Mutual Funds ( ELSS Mutual Funds ) to upto Rs 1 lakh and Save tax under Section 80C. Invest Tax Saving Mutual Funds Onlin...
Read more

Mutual Fund Review: HDFC Mid-Cap Opportunities Fund

LAUNCHED in June 2007, HDFC Mid-Cap Opportunities Fund was started as a three year closed-ended scheme. It was subsequently converted into an open-ended scheme in June 2010. The fund has been ranked as Crisil Fund Rank 1 in the small & midcap equity category according to Crisil Mutual Fund Ranking methodology over two of the last four quarters and has been present in the top 30 percentile in the category for all the four quarters. Crisil Mutual Fund Rank 1 funds form the top 10 percentile of the ranked universe representing very good performance vis-à-vis category peers. The fund, managed by Chirag Setalvad, has assets under management of ` 1,275 crore as of April 30, 2011 and has outperformed its peers and the benchmark (CNX Midcap Index) in the 1, 2 and 3 year time frames. INVESTMENT APPROACH The fund's objective is to earn capital appreciation by investing in equities of small and mid cap companies. While these companies have a higher return potential than large cap ...
Read more

Stick to Good Fund Manager who Can Multiply Your Investment

A manager may be the difference between the best and worst funds. Here's how you can find the right one    Does a mutual fund manager make a difference to your investment? The answer may not be as easy as you think, since most best-performing mutual funds have moved away from individualistic fund management to process-driven methods, limiting the scope of an individual's role in investment decisions. In fact, many fund managers would speak at length about how the "system" their fund house has in place makes their task of picking stocks easy even though it restricts their freedom. Still, the question is important, especially after recent reports that the Securities and Exchange Board of India ( Sebi ) may ask fund managers to disclose to investors their track record of managing money. Let us take a look at the universe of large-cap funds over the past five years. According to Value Research, an independent mutual fund tracking firm, the topper in the category is DSP...
Read more
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Invest in Tax Saving Mutual Funds Download Any Applications
Transact Mutual Funds Online Invest Online
Buy Gold Mutual Funds Invest Now