At a time when costs for healthcare insurance plans is going up, it has been reported that some of the public sector insurers are making the scenario even worse for policyholders by doing away with the otherwise provided no-claim bonus and other benefits such as discount in premium when opting for a family floater health plan.

So what recourse you have in such a situation?

No claim bonus benefit provides you with extended coverage for every no-claim bonuss year that is for every year you do make the claim on your policy, insurer increases or ups the basic insured value by fixed percentage which can range from anywhere to between 10-50%. Say, if you started the policy with an insured value of Rs. 1 lakh, for 5 no claim bonus years, the insured value could then reach to Rs. 1.5 lakh.

But, now as the some of the public-run health insurers are doing away with this benefit which turns out to be good enough to beat medical inflation. Should you be switching to a private sector insurer still providing no claim bonus or continue with the same policy. Here is what expert advice in such a situation:

People aged over 50 years can consider switching to a health policy with no-claim bonus benefit as with only a marginal difference in premium costs advantage that comes with the benefit is useful.

While for others switching merely to get the benefit of no-claim bonus will serve no purpose if the new insurer also withdraws the gain due to it in some time.

How to port a policy to a company providing bonus of no claim and other benefits?

If you after scouting out for different available options choose to switch your health policy, do make sure that the new insurer accepts the underlying benefits together with the accrued benefits as the latter is not obliged to do so.

Plus you have to write an application for porting your policy well in advance say 45 days before the expiry of your current policy in force.

So to get the extra sum insured bonus for every no claim year on your policy you can go an extra mile but after making note of all the pros and cons.

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