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I received this from the society today.

I dont agree with what has happened nor the statement. It should be out of the tax surplus the government holds and not out of the sale of medibank private.

ASMR welcomes today's joint announcement!

The Australian Society for Medical Research (ASMR) welcomes today's joint announcement by
the Minister for Health and Ageing, and the Minister for Finance and Administration, of
increased funding for health and medical research as a result of the pending sale of
Medibank Private.

"We look forward with great anticipation to further announcements on Budget night", said
Professor Levon Khachigian, President of ASMR. "We call upon the Federal Government to
adopt the full budgetary recommendations of the Grant Investment Review since we are
lagging behind other developed countries in health R&D funding".

"Grant recognised the exceptional value of investing in health and medical research and
recommended a phased increase in government spending to $1.8bn over 5 years – increased
funding is critical and will get Australia up to the OECD average of 0.2% of GDP", said
Professor Khachigian.

"Health R&D investment is a "golden egg" with proven health, economic and social benefits
to Australia and the rest of the world. For every $1 invested, we get back $5-8".

"We hope the Federal Government will make the most of this opportunity", said Professor
Khachigian.

What gets me with privatisation of things like this is they actually make a tidy profit for the government as owners. And in the case of Medibank Private a fair swag of the cash reserves it has belong to its members, but they get no share of the sale proceeeds - it all goes to the government. Consider this:

Daily telegraph wrote: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…

It's the Federal Government's take on Cash Converters.
Cash Converters wouldn't take Telstra, so they went down to the garden shed and found a Medibank Private they could trade.