Here’s my open letter. What do you think?

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GMHBA HEALTH FUND OR NIB WEALTH FUND
I’d like to share some thoughts on what may become a NIB inspired feeding frenzy of gluttonous greed.

The reality is NIB’s share price may drop once the health insurance rebate is means tested or removed as is ALP and Greens policy. NIB could easily face another takeover threat from an overseas predator seeking to increase premiums or strip the assets of both NIB and GMHBA.
So any pledge to preserve local jobs, branches policies and premiums could evaporate once NIB is taken over. The precedent is there. Fifty inefficient funds have disappeared since 1970. Luckily successive GMHBA boards have prudently guided Geelong’s local fund through the 1930s depression and WWII. There have also been seven recessions in Australia since 1960 and the scars of 1990 and the Pyramid collapse are still there for many.

GMHBA’s constitution gives the Geelong based board a mandate to look after the health fund for the benefit of current members as well as generations of families to come. The board could have given up many times over the last 75 years and ‘sold out’ to a better value, better managed and lower cost base competitor with superior service to members. Yet the current board may argue NIB has none of these attributes.

Under the current carbon tax scenario, Geelong’s economic health and employment levels are uncertain. So future mayors, footy presidents, ‘footy funny folk’ as well as Geelong families might condemn the current GMHBA Board if it ‘sold out’ to a less efficient and fundamentally unstable share price driven health fund.

There are only four things that will ensure GMHBA continues to be able to help members pay their ever increasing medical bills; a lower cost structure, friendly service, value and integrity. My guess is that’s all the GMHBA Board seeks to preserve and what successive generations of Geelong families have admired most about its local health fund.

So while healthy debate is good, the worth of wisdom is vital. GMHBA has neither been a ‘millionaire factory’ nor wasted members’ premiums. It has never been faced with the moral dilemma of paying $100,000 for surgery or denying the claim to pay extra in dividends to shareholders.

So look out for more Geelong ‘paid celebrities’ and GMHBA members recommending a cash-grab. It will be interesting to see who hops aboard the gravy train to Newcastle! Yet best we simply stay calm, happy and healthy and let GMHBA’s board do its job – nothing more.

The stark and harsh question is over the years ahead, when it comes to the health, pain and possible death of a loved one, what sort of organisation will you hope is there to help you?
These are the truths and issues left unsaid. So if you care about this issue, why not go ‘on the record’ and post a comment?