Morbidity Rate

The morbidity rate is the frequency or proportion with which a disease appears in a population. Morbidity rates are used in actuarial professions, such as health insurance, life insurance, and long-term care insurance to determine the premiums to charge to customers. Morbidity rates help insurers predict the likelihood that an insured will contract or develop any number of specified diseases and thus develop competitively-priced insurance policies in its regulated industry. Morbidity rate should not be confused with mortality rate, which is the frequency of death in a given population.