The federal government will go ahead with the sale of Medibank Private next financial year, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann says.
Medibank Private will be sold through an IPO in the 2014-15 financial year.
Minister Cormann says the scoping study has found no evidence that premiums will increase as a result of the sale.
“As it does now Medibank would need to compete with other funds for customers and would of course need to continue to comply with all of the relevant regulatory requirements around premium change.
“The sale of Medibank Private would also remove the current inherent conflict with the government as both the regulator of the private health insurance market and a very large market participant.”
The precise timing and structure of the initial public offering are yet to be determined.
An independently-prepared scoping study had reaffirmed the government’s long-held view that there was no compelling reason for it to own Medibank Private, Senator Cormann said.
More details to come.