New Delhi, Aug. 8 -- Over the past month, Mint Money has been examining the issues plaguing health insurance portability. It began with our reporting on health insurance retention rates, where one of the major drivers of churn was policyholders porting their policies.

Portability was introduced by the insurance regulator to ensure customers were not trapped in health insurance policies that didn't serve them well. The idea was simple: allow policyholders to switch insurers without losing continuity benefits such as the no-claim bonus, waiting periods already served and the time completed towards the 60-month moratorium.

While a strong consumer reform on paper, it appears to be falling apart on the ground. We examined the guardrails mean...