Nick Minchin,
beware. The Daily Telegraph is onto the Medibank Private rip-off. Selling off
someone else’s farm is how Sue Dunlevy puts it:

Three million
Australians will be dudded big time when the Federal Government sells off the
nation’s largest health fund, Medibank Private. The sale is expected to raise at least $1
billion for the Howard Government, yet three of the fund’s former managers and
a former Health Department chief all agree those who should be getting the
proceeds are the people who supplied all the money to build Medibank – its
members. Just as members of the NRMA and AMP were
allocated shares when these organisations were floated on the stock exchange,
they argue Medibank Private’s members are entitled, at the very least, to a
slice of the funds assets when it is sold. Finance Minister Senator Nick Minchin is not having
a bar of that argument…

A Crikey
subscriber has done the sums following reporting in Crikey and The Canberra
Times earlier this week on what the divvying up of the kitty should mean:

$1,600 million divided by three million members –
$533 due to each Medibank Private member. With five members in my family, Nick
Minchin owes us around $2,600. I’ll be billing him – thank you.