New Delhi, Aug. 8 -- Health insurance portability allows you to switch insurers without losing your benefits. This means you keep your waiting periods already completed. You also keep your no-claim bonus from before.

Normally, buying a new policy means starting completely fresh. Waiting periods reset, and past benefits simply disappear. Portability was created to solve this exact problem.

The insurance regulator, IRDAI, introduced this rule years ago. It wanted to stop customers from feeling stuck with bad insurers. This was meant to encourage better service and fairer pricing.

In theory, the system sounds simple and fair. In reality, though, serious problems have surfaced recently.

Reporting by Mint Money found two major issues. The ...