Thus, Mr. G. Subrahmanyam, a marketing professional with a private company, said when asked about the portability of health insurance came into force on October 1.

He has a lot of complaints from their health insurance when the claims has not been done to his satisfaction when he met a serious car accident recently.

This pretty much sums up the perception of the portability of health insurance underwriter in the first 40 days of its operation.

Asked about the number of requests for portability policyholders, said J. Hari Narayan, chairman of Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of the industry, they were "insignificant."

However, this does not mean the health insurance segment is free of complaints - most of the complaints come from owners of the health insurance coverage.

"I do not think that the appeal led by the portability is great, but, yes, policyholders need to understand the process better,''Mr. Sanjay Datta, head -. Customer Service, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company, said .

So the portability of health insurance is not as simple as MNP.

Standards, such as 45 days prior notice before the contract expires and a comparison of different products from different insurers can not be easy for a client, said Mr. Neeraj Basur, CFO, Max Bupa Health Insurance has said.

"But as an insurance company, we went through the initial problems in understanding the portability and is ready to fully implement,’ he said.

In the future, requests for number portability can go together to increase understanding of the concept, feel experts.

The size of the health insurance segment was Rs 11,000 crore in 2010-11 and is expected to go up to Rs 13,500 crore by the end of the year.

Source: thehindubusinessline