Comparative Morbidity m What Are The Prospects?

Thanks to the efforts of many illustrious medical director~ and actuaries, comparative mortality was developed in the early part of this century as the indispensable tool for life insurance underwriting of individual applicants. The work of Rogers and Hunter culminated in the publication of the numerical rating system. Over the years results of many insurance mortality studies of impaired risks have provided the basis for underwriting manuals that arein use in all companies offering individual life insurance1. More recently follow-up studies have been culled from the medical literature and the mortality systematically presented in a comparative format2. Thus the risk classification of applicants with all degrees of excess mortality has been steadily refined since the early years of this century.