Abbott to sell Medibank Private

[medusala]

One is more risky than the other - GFC anyone?
One can be sold in case of emergency, the other can't unless it is in the money market and we know how risky that is.

Once again you are talking nonsense. Government bonds and a heap of other financial assets kept trading during the GFC. There seems a very high correlation on here between opposition to the sale of Medibank and utter ignorance of financial markets / economics.

 

[Maggie5]

Once again you are talking nonsense. Government bonds and a heap of other financial assets kept trading during the GFC. There seems a very high correlation on here between opposition to the sale of Medibank and utter ignorance of financial markets / economics.

Nonsense, utter ignorance? If you want to show I am wrong,happy for you to do so no need for insults. Only shows your lack of class.

 

[Ratts of Tobruk]

Once again you are talking nonsense. Government bonds and a heap of other financial assets kept trading during the GFC. There seems a very high correlation on here between opposition to the sale of Medibank and utter ignorance of financial markets / economics.

Didn't you just confuse the cash rate with the bond rate? And BTW, like most of the self-proclaimed financial experts on BF (and IRL), you seem to think you can get away with just saying you know heaps about finance n stuff, without actually explaining your rationale.

Of course if your case was so simple you would just make it, rather than calling everyone else ignorant.

 

[medusala]

Didn't you just confuse the cash rate with the bond rate?

No. Someone else did. 10year bond rate is higher. That is where govt borrows on international markets (though different bonds have different maturities). One is set by RBA, the other the market. The government cant just simply say "we will borrow money at this rate". Doesnt work like that.

See Greece.

 

[Maggie5]

Just thinking about the selling of Medibank and also Hockey wanting the states to sell their assets.
To me this is a band-aid fix as have past governments when the sold their banks, Telstra etc.
So what will happen to the next generation if there is another GFC and there is nothing left to sell?
We could end up being another Greece without the tourism.

 

[AM]

No surprise! Next to go will be Australia Post. And don't be surprised if privatising public hospitals isn't in the grand Tory plan if they can get the States on side. Kennett has already tried it in Victoria.

 

[Sanders]

So you still aren't answering the question.

Of course I didn't, it was a dumb question.

But I seem to recall you're the one who doesn't understand the subject he's making grand pronouncements about

As for your new question, Mofra stated just 6 posts above this conversation:

I'm not asking a question, I'm enjoying you not knowing how to answer or even what questions you should be asking back.

You're referencing someone's un-cited "anecdotal" data, and still don't know what to make of it even if were true.

If you believe that is misinformed, feel free to inform us. Or are we beneath your grand knowledge and communication skills?

I find it interesting you weren't so curious when grandly telling anyone who'd listen how you knew how things really were. When challenged now you're interested in knowing more

Wrong way round don't you think

 

[Sanders]

I thought it was higher too, but it isn't. That is unless Sanders' re-education session tells us how blind we all were...

...Any minute now...

You still don't know what questions to ask or how to interrogate the data

 

[Sanders]

Cash rate and bond rate are different.

Ok talk more about this, and the impact of liquidity preference theory on risk free fungible asset classes?

go

 

[Ratts of Tobruk]

Seeing as you quoted me in three consecutive posts, it's surprising you didn't actually quote my "grand pronouncements" and "un-cited "anecdotal" data" where I was "grandly telling anyone who'd listen how you knew how things really were".

It's almost like you are yet again avoiding answering the question and think people on here are dumb enough to not notice.

Do you think your the first person to throw around financial language in the hope of making yourself sound smarter than everyone else?

Hint: You aren't even the first in this thread.
More obvious hint: There's a trillion dollar industry that exists largely by doing just this.

 

[Qsaint]

The greatest benefit of Medibank was that it acted to force providers to offer more competitive pricing, outside of being a tidy earner for government.

Watch prices skyrocket and consumers (and in this case general taxpayers), as always, be the losers.

When was this ever the case? Medibank was never a price or service leader, it holds no minimum price in place in market and should be sold. Keating recently said something similar

 

[Qsaint]

No surprise! Next to go will be Australia Post. And don't be surprised if privatising public hospitals isn't in the grand Tory plan if they can get the States on side. Kennett has already tried it in Victoria.

Australia post like most western post offices is losing a lot of money delivering mail. It in my opinion will stop delivering mail in under ten years. The competitive business in parcels should be sold off.

 

[AM]

Fresh doubts have emerged about the planned sale of Medibank Private following the discovery of documents which show policyholders were the owners of the health fund’s assets, not the federal government.

Hopefully there's something in this. As a policy holder my answer to the sale would be 'nein'

http://bit.ly/1rtTm12

 

[Maggie5]

Hopefully there's something in this. As a policy holder my answer to the sale would be 'nein'

http://bit.ly/1rtTm12

That would be so funny. It would show yet another example of the government of not doing their homework.

 

[AM]

That would be so funny. It would show yet another example of the government of not doing their homework.

And put a further hole in our cigar chomping Treasurer's budget. You know the fella who told us his draconian budget was necessary because we had a budget emergency. An emergency that apparently magically dissipated last week.

 

[Qsaint]

At b

Hopefully there's something in this. As a policy holder my answer to the sale would be 'nein'

http://bit.ly/1rtTm12

at best you have a right to an asset this is not a mutual it was many years ago a NFP. It is now a for profit having paid the govt many years of dividends. Control has always vested in the commonwealth. Any way the govt hired Lazard to advise, best fixers in the business, labor royalty on the board.

 

[tandino]

It's hardly a revelation, this was brought up and dismissed months ago by my recollection.

 

[Maggie5]

Some interesting articles re Medibank ownership. Don't know that much can be done about it as was sold to Federal Government for $100.
I wonder who received the $100?
The Commonwealth of Australia became the sole shareholder of Medibank Private on 1 May, 1998.

In return for a paltry investment of $100, the federal government installed itself as the “full owner” of a new entity known as Medibank Private Limited that bulged with net assets of $282 million.

According to special legislation introduced by the Howard Government in 1997, Friday 1 May, 1998 represents “fund-transfer day” – the ostensible moment when policyholders ceased to have an ownership claim to the business.

http://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2014/04/15/medibank-sale-clouded-1977-documents/.VCuRXnFzyBk.mailto
http://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2014/04/08/howards-heist-commonwealth-pocketed-medibank/
http://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2014/04/01/medibank-news-story/
http://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2014/04/01/medibank-feature/

 

[medusala]

Some interesting articles re Medibank ownership. Don't know that much can be done about it as was sold to Federal Government for $100.
I wonder who received the $100?

Good point. Who received the billions from Telstra, CBA etc? Given we were all shareholders, where is my cheque? Whats the point of being a shareholder with no prospect of any return?

 

[Maggie5]

Good point. Who received the billions from Telstra, CBA etc? Given we were all shareholders, where is my cheque? Whats the point of being a shareholder with no prospect of any return?

I am still trying to remember if my deposit for gas and electricity was ever returned when they were sold. Cleaning out some papers today and saw receipts from local council for electricity and another from Gas and Fuel Corporation.

 

[JoseMourinho]

You'll likely get a dividend like all other Health Insurance providers that are listed on the ASX....

Sheesh, I'm surprised you're complaining about Telstra given that it is the Superfund's best friend when it pays constant 14-15 cent full-franked dividends for about a $5.30 stock price.

 

[tandino]

What are we thinking about this IPO as an investment?

 

[medusala]

I am still trying to remember if my deposit for gas and electricity was ever returned when they were sold.

Good luck with that. Hard enough to try to get money back due to "estimated readings". Imagine other businesses sending invoices on guesses.

 

[Jiska]

Mathias Cormann announces Abbott government will go ahead with sale of Medibank Private
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-polit...-sale-of-medibank-private-20140326-35iai.html



http://www.smh.com.au/federal-polit...-sale-of-medibank-private-20140326-35iai.html

Despite what they claim I have a strong feeling that this is going to cost the average Australian a lot of money in the long run. Privvatisation means Medibank will be a for profit company which means they will try and cut costs and increase prices when they can which of course is going to hurt their customers. Of course this fits in with the Coalitions policy of only deserving healthcare if you can afford it.

More to the point, if Governments keep selling everything, where will future profit come from? Tax increases?

I'm also wondering what we'll do in 20 years to reduce our debt level when we have no assets to sell anymore.

IMO, no Government (including Howard and Telstra, Abbott and Medibank/Australian Hearing (no-one's mentioned that yet) and also Keating selling Commonwealth Bank and Qantas (before someone tries to turn this in to a left vs right argument)), should be able to sell publically owned corporations without a plebisite. These are taxpayer owned companies that the taxpayer has poured dozens of years of money in to.

They belong to us, not the Government. For a short-term Government to be able to walk in and sell a public asset to make a quick buck in the hope of gaining another term in power, when we (the taxpayer) has spent 80 years building it up into what it is, just stinks.

 

[The Coup]

I really hope everyone is waking up to the absolute farce that is privatisation.

Getting paid a pittance for an asset we already own, so a government can spend it on bombs, then make the service less efficient and more expensive, and remove the right of the population to complain about it because "its the market" whilst guaranteeing some foreign corporation a minimum profit for a ludicrous amount of time.

These people are ideologues.