What Should You do if Your Health Insurer Withdraws the No-Claim Bonus?

The No-Claim Bonus (NCB) is one of the key features of all the top health insurance policies. However, many insurers have started to withdraw with benefit from them lately. So, what should you do if your insurer joins the league and takes it away from you as well?

Let’s first understand how the NCB works and what its benefits are.

What is a no-claim bonus?

An NCB is a financial benefit that you get if you don’t file a claim against your health insurance policy during a 7^th particular year. It is usually provided in either of the following formats:

• A flat discount on your annual premium
• An increase in the sum assured aka Cumulative Bonus^#

As you can see, an NCB is a very useful feature. However, now that the insurers are withdrawing the same from their policies, it has left the insured in a jeopardy.

What to do if the insurer withdraws NCB?

According to experts, if the age of the insured is more than 50 years, then they should consider switching to another insurance policy that offers NCB. However, for the young insured it may not be a good idea.  This is because it’s possible that the new insurer may withdraw the benefit in the near future as well.

The following are some other key aspects to learn about NCB:

• If your current insurer offers NCB, then you can transfer the same to another policy at the time of renewal if you want.
• If you want to port your policy to another insurer, then as per IRDAI guidelines, you should write a letter to your current insurer about the same. However, you must inform at least 45 days prior to the date of renewal.

#. Cumulative Bonus is an increase in the sum assured by a certain percentage for every claim-free year. It’s usually around 5% but can go as high as 100%.
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