'This could be your parents next': CA exposes how India’s insurance system fails senior citizens

They paid premiums for 15 years. Disclosed every illness. Followed every rule. But when a medical emergency struck, their policy was revoked, their claim denied—and the system meant to protect them ghosted them.

Gujarat-based chartered accountant Neeraj Khanchandani took to LinkedIn with a scathing account of how his senior citizen parents were left without health coverage after a private insurer cancelled their long-standing policy—retroactively—following a hospital claim.

Khanchandani says he ported their 13+ year-old health policy from a public insurer to a private company in 2021, disclosing all past medical history, including a swine flu incident. The new insurer accepted the disclosures, charged a higher premium—and then, in 2024, refused the claim, citing “non-disclosure.”

“Claim rejected. Policy cancelled. No refund. No insurer now willing to issue a new one at 63+,” Khanchandani wrote.

Worse, he alleges that despite 20+ calls and emails, the company went silent. The platform through which the policy was purchased refused to help. And when he escalated through NCH, IRDAI, and the Insurance Ombudsman, he was told the case was closed due to “no documents received”—despite delivery confirmations.

“There was no hearing. No investigation. Just copy-paste closure,” he wrote. “Even the systems meant to protect citizens from insurance abuse are operating like a tick-box joke.”

The post has struck a nerve online, igniting debate about how insurers treat India’s elderly, and the apparent toothlessness of grievance redressal mechanisms. Khanchandani’s warning is blunt: Porting a policy does not protect you, and once you're over 60, the industry can simply leave you uninsured and unheard.

His final plea is sharp: “Or do we just accept that aged citizens have no voice in this country anymore?”