Marsh & WEF: Insurtech’s Role in Resilient Supply Chains

“Global supply chains were built for cost, speed and scale, but not for resilience when health systems are under strain,” the World Economic Forum (WEF) says.

From pandemics to climate-related disruptions and regional instability, these pressures are exposing how closely workforce health is tied to insurable risk and economic resilience.

At the same time, access to healthcare, insurance coverage and social protection has expanded more slowly than global trade and production systems.

As a result, workforce health is emerging as a systemic risk embedded within global supply chains, with growing implications for underwriting, claims and risk modelling.

In a session at WEF’s Annual Meeting in Davos, leaders pointed to “deep health protection gaps” across supply chains, underscoring the opportunity for insurtech innovation.

Gaps in health access and rising employer exposure

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 4.6 billion people still do not have access to essential health services, while 2.1 billion experience financial hardship when trying to get care.

Those shortfalls are feeding into workforce instability, higher absenteeism and rising employer concern over healthcare affordability and availability.

Marsh’s People Risk research also points to increasing health and benefit costs, alongside labour shortages, as key threats for organisations, with many employers seeing more frequent sickness-related absences and mounting worries about employees’ long-term financial pressure.

“Less than half of weather-related losses worldwide are insured,” says Amy Barnes, Head of Climate & Sustainability Strategy at Marsh Risk.

“This gap isn’t just a statistic; it’s a risk to communities and economies that we must urgently address.”

As health risks spread beyond direct employees to include suppliers and contractors, accountability can splinter across multiple parties, weakening preparedness and raising the risk of expensive, reactive interventions.

Climate pressure and system-wide vulnerability

Climate change is amplifying these underlying vulnerabilities by reshaping working conditions and worsening health outcomes.

The International Labour Organization estimates that nearly 70% of the global workforce is exposed to climate-related hazards, while less than 6% of adaptation finance reaches health systems.

Extreme heat can cut safe working hours, flooding can sever access to care and transport routes and disease outbreaks can drive up absenteeism.

These impacts ripple beyond individual companies, straining local health infrastructure, eroding productivity and undermining the community economies that form the backbone of global supply chains.

“Health and safety should not be a desk exercise in the executive bureau,” says Atle Høie, General Secretary of IndustriALL Global Union.

Treating workforce health as infrastructure

According to the WEF, workforce health is increasingly being treated as critical infrastructure, rather than a peripheral welfare concern.

WEF research underscores that the strength of health systems and local community capacity directly shapes how quickly supply chains can rebound from shocks and disruptions.

Antonia Wanner, Chief Sustainability Officer at Nestlé, observed at Davos that “this is something we need to work on”.

This shift has sparked rising interest in coordinated investment among employers, insurers and governments, including financial mechanisms such as parametric insurance, pooled healthcare arrangements and employer‑supported primary care programmes.

As these risks intersect, the central question is whether workforce health will remain managed reactively or be recognised as a system‑level investment essential for long‑term economic resilience.