The Australian government on Sunday raised the prospect of a two-billion-dollar (1.5 billion US) public float of its Medibank Private health fund. Treasurer Peter Costello backed a move to offer the fund on the stock exchange, saying in a television interview that it would have benefits for both members of the fund and the industry.
"I think this could be an area where we could achieve some other policy goals and I would actually like to see us very carefully examine the possibility of offering Medibank to the public, particularly to policyholders," Costello said.
The government-owned Medibank Private is Australias largest and only national private health insurer, with nearly three million members, covering almost 30 percent of the private health insurance market. The cabinet is expected to decide in the next few weeks whether to proceed with the sale of the health fund, and whether it will be offered to the public or to another fund. "I guess the usual thing would be just to sell Medibank Private to another health fund and you would get a larger health fund - but I would really like to see serious work done on offering it to the public," Costello said.
"I think the public would be interested in this and I think if you were to get a health fund listed on the stock exchange, which would be a bit of a first, then you might actually see a lot more reform come through the health insurance industry."
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