Medibank Private similarly extended its market share leadership by 18,651 people covered (0.14% share) over its nearest competitor MBF and by 17,428 lives over third placed BUPA (0.1% share).
Medibank Private's Managing Director, George Savvides said, "The strong growth during the quarter is reflective of the ongoing programme to improve the business for the benefit of its health fund members and shareholder.
"This is another milestone in Medibank Private's consistently improving financial and membership performance over the last three years," he said.
"This strong growth was underpinned by the enormous success of our two recently released products My Options and Priority. They have filed gaps in our market and consequently proven to be extremely popular.
"My Options is targeted at making private health insurance more attractive to young adults. The Priority product is directed to the corporate market offering valued benefits to both the member and employer.
"The fund is in a strong position. Operating margins are solid, costs are below industry average, policies have grown in excess of 50,000 since July 2005, and benefit outlay growth is controlled through advocating strongly on behalf of members with providers.
"The fund is confident of continued growth into the new financial year. It has recently informed its membership that it would remove all excesses for their dependent children when they are admitted to hospital and directed its marketing efforts to strengthen its share of the family market.
"In addition, a raft of other member initiatives have been introduced including: running preventative health care programs for members; arranging special health and well-being programs for members; providing grants to a range of hospitals to implement new quality and safety initiatives; and introducing the ability for members to make extras claims online.
"Members are being rewarded with better products and services. It is very satisfying that so many Australians are choosing to join us at Medibank," Mr Savvides said.
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