New Delhi, April 16 -- India's health insurance system ignores one of the most effective tools in modern medicine: preventive care. Despite overwhelming global evidence that early intervention reduces hospitalizations, disabilities and healthcare costs, Indian insurance policies rarely if ever cover the cost of preventive medication for chronic and life-threatening conditions. These are the very treatments that can keep patients out of hospitals-yet they remain out of reach for many simply because their value goes unrecognized.

Worse, this blind spot sits atop a system already failing patients. Policyholders are treated as afterthoughts, left to navigate a maze that seems designed to protect the interests of hospitals, third-party admini...