Insurance and prevention: ethical aspects.

In recent decades, prevention policies--i.e., insurance policies constructed to give incentives to investments in prevention and thereby reduce reliance on insurance--have been much discussed both with regard to different kinds of market insurance and, albeit primarily within a European context and in relation to an ongoing discussion about the need for a shift towards an "active" welfare state, with regard to social insurance. The present contribution identifies normative issues that deserve attention in relation to a general introduction of prevention policies in market insurance and social insurance. It is argued that the importance of these normative issues suggests that arguments and distinctions drawn from moral and political philosophy should play a more prominent role both in the debate on the shift towards an active welfare state and the use of prevention policies in market insurance.