ADAPTER POUR PROTÉGER : HEALTH INSURANCE IN THE FACE OF CLIMATE CHALLENGE

When it comes to climate change, attention is often focused on buildings, infrastructure, or supply chains. But what is essential is sometimes overlooked: people.

They are the ones who work in businesses, live in housing, teach in schools, or care in hospitals. Adaptation is primarily about protecting health, security, and each person's ability to live and work in viable conditions.

This is the purpose of the study that Tardigrade AI is conducting with Harmonie Mutuelle and Mutex (Groupe VYV): to understand how climate disruption affects health and occupational health, and to identify the levers for adaptation to protect both individuals, the performance of businesses, and the sustainability of the insurance model.

What Science Tells Us

The scientific literature is clear. In the United States, episodes of extreme heat increase visits to emergency services by more than 10% and hospitalizations by 7%, with a strong incidence on kidney injuries and certain mental disorders. In California, the risk of work accidents grows by 6 to 15% above 32–38°C. In 2023, heat waves caused an estimated excess mortality of 47,000 people in Europe, including more than 5,000 in France. In China and several developing countries, each additional degree reduces industrial production by 1 to 2%. Floods, in turn, lead to post-traumatic stress, anxiety, and psychological distress in Europe, and exacerbate depressive symptoms in Asia, with lasting consequences related to loss of housing, interruption of work, or social disorganization.

These impacts translate into a rapid and significant increase in healthcare costs, which insurers have no immediate choice but to pass on to policyholders and companies that cover their employees.

However, recent European studies on the effects of climate on occupational health remain rare. Research mainly focuses on mental health, while professional dimensions — workplace accidents, activity disruptions, decreased productivity — are largely under-studied. Analysis also often lacks granularity: it rarely integrates precise data on the intensity of events, their detailed location, timing, or the resilience of territories. Moreover, longitudinal studies, which are essential for measuring the effect of repeated exposure or cumulative damage on health and productivity, remain exceptional.

Such an approach is crucial: on one hand to project the evolution of healthcare costs and evaluate the cost of inaction; on the other hand, to define and prioritize relevant adaptation measures, that are assessable and sustainable. This is precisely the gap — this research gap — that Tardigrade AI seeks to fill with Harmonie Mutuelle and Mutex (Groupe VYV), laying the groundwork for a robust and operational understanding of the links between climate, health, and insurance.

A Strategic Challenge for Health Insurers

In Europe and France, mutuals are already observing the first signs of climate disruption: an increase in consultations, prescriptions, and sick leaves, degradation of mental health, increase in visits to emergency services, and thus an increasing pressure on costs.

Raising premiums is only a short-term response: it ensures the immediate financial balance of insurers but undermines the mutualist mission. It is also noted that some companies reduce their guarantees or refrain from covering the family of employees. Ultimately, if nothing is done, the very sustainability of the system is threatened.

Getting Out of the Inflationary Spiral

The future cannot rely on a simple increase in costs, but on a strategy of anticipation and adaptation. It involves identifying critical climate thresholds for health, cross-referencing climatic, HR, and medical data to identify risk periods, and deploying targeted actions: scheduling adjustments, secure telework, appropriate ventilation, specific protections for the most exposed sites.

Better knowledge requires the use of precise and granular exposure indicators — water height, frequency and duration of floods, GPS location, accessibility to infrastructure — and to associate them with health indicators relating to mental health, absenteeism, sick leave, and accidents. This approach will allow for the identification of critical thresholds at which impacts become significant. It must also rely on longitudinal studies, to distinguish the immediate effects from the persistent impacts related to repeated exposure. Finally, it must be contextualized based on the built environment, local response capacity, the level of employee exposure both at work and at home, and existing prevention measures.

This is the approach we are developing with Harmonie Mutuelle and Mutex, relying on Tardigrade AI's climate exposure diagnostics. Our goal is clear: to provide companies with granular, reliable, and immediately actionable tools, to turn this challenge into a "win–win–win": protect employee health, preserve business performance, and strengthen the sustainability of the insurance model.

Conclusion

Climate disruption is a direct issue of public health, occupational health, and economic sustainability.

With precise diagnostics and targeted adaptation plans, we can protect individuals, preserve economic value, and consolidate the mutualist mission.

👉 Join us at Réavie, Cannes on October 9, with Harmonie Mutuelle and Mutex (Groupe VYV), to discuss the future of health insurance in a warming world.

Let's make an appointment today: contact@tardigrade-ai.com