Moral Hazard and Health Insurance When Treatment Is Preventive

We consider a two-period model under moral hazard when treatment is preventive. In the second period, the treatment level under moral hazard is higher than that under no moral hazard. However, it may be lower than that under moral hazard when overinsurance is not allowed. In the first period, the treatment level is higher when treatment is preventive than when it is not. Treatment level is also higher as the discount factor increases. We demonstrate that a treatment increase following a coverage increase does not necessarily imply moral hazard. These findings imply that moral hazard is possibly overemphasized in the literature.