Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Hansard source

I remind Senator Sherry that of course the government has retained its authority over the approval of insurance premiums. Any member of any health insurance fund is free at any time to transfer their health insurance policy to another fund. That is the point of competition and transferability. If they do not like the service they get from Medibank Private or anybody else, they can take their business to one of the other 38 funds in the market. Medibank Private customers have been served well by George Savvidis and his team over recent years and I congratulate them. I am sure Medibank Private will continue to provide very good service. We are doing this for taxpayers. Taxpayers are the ones who have supported and sustained this business. Taxpayers are the ones who have capital tied up in this business. Taxpayers are the ones who should be free of this investment and have the capital that is tied up in Medibank Private put into a diversified equity investment in the Future Fund. This is together with the fact that we have, of course, increased the research dollars in Australia. (Time expired)