From Reactivity to Proactivity: The Use of Behavioural Data in Life and Health Insurance

Traditional life and health insurance compensates after the fact, acting reactively in response to adverse events. Today, the rise of digital technologies enables insurers to intervene proactively, monitoring policyholders’ behaviour and incentivizing lifestyle changes intended to reduce risks before they materialize. This article argues that the shift from reactivity to proactivity marks a profound transformation in the temporal logic and social role of insurance. Based on empirical research, we examine the actuarial, normative, and societal implications of proactivity in life and health insurance. We situate these developments within broader debates on quantification and the quantified self, showing how individual self-tracking practices are embedded into institutional feedback loops that make unprecedented surveillance possible, but also create new forms of personalisation, solidarity, and responsibility. Proactivity, we contend, is not simply prevention by other means, but an innovative reconfiguration of uncertainty management that both disciplines and empowers policyholders through data-driven incentives and recommendations.