Public | |
Traded as | ASX: MPL |
Industry | Private Health Insurance & Disease management |
Founded | 1975 as arm of the Health Insurance Commission |
Headquarters | Melbourne, Australia |
Key people
|
Craig Drummond (CEO and Managing Director - from 4 July 2016) David Koczkar (Acting CEO and Managing Director) |
Products | private health insurance, travel insurance, life insurance, pet insurance, workplace health promotion, workplace health management, Health call centres |
Revenue | A$6.37 billion (2014) |
$197.4 million (2012) | |
$126.6 million (2012) | |
Number of employees
|
2,700 |
Subsidiaries | ahm (Australian Health Management) |
Website |
www.medibank.com.au www.medibankhealth.com.au www.ahm.com.au |
www.medibank.com.au www.medibankhealth.com.au
Medibank Private Limited (ASX: MPL) is a national private health insurer based in Australia. It is Australia's largest health insurance provider with 3.8 million members, 29.1% of the market, under two brands. Previously an Australian government business enterprise, it was privatised in 2014 by the Abbott Government and now operates as a publicly listed company on the ASX.
The company began business as an Australian government-owned private health insurer, established by the Whitlam Government in 1975 through the Health Insurance Commission (now known as Medicare Australia). It is a leading Australian health insurance provider with 3.8 million members, providing cover under two brands (Medibank and ahm).
Medibank was set up to provide competition to private "for-profit" health funds. Although government owned, the fund has operated as a government business enterprise since 2009, operating as a fully commercialised business paying tax and dividends under the same regulatory regime as do all other registered private health funds. Highly regulated regarding the premiums it can set, the fund was designed to put pressure on other health funds to keep premiums at a reasonable level. In 2006, the Coalition Howard Government announced that Medibank would be sold in a public float if it won the 2007 election, however they were defeated by the Australian Labor Party under Kevin Rudd which had already pledged that it would remain in government ownership. Liberal leader Tony Abbott made the same pledge to privatise Medibank if it won the 2010 election but was again defeated by Labor. Privatisation was again Liberal party policy at the 2013 election, which the Coalition won. On 26 March 2014 Minister for Finance Mathias Cormann announced that Medibank would be sold through an initial public offering in the 2014-2015 financial year. The sale was completed with 100% of the company sold, listing on the Australian Stock Exchange under the code MPL on 25 November 2014, with 440,000 individual owners with a market capitalisation of A$5.921 billion.