Discovery results first Half 2011

Discovery results yesterday for the six months to end December. We watched the results presentation here in our offices on the television. We did not step away from our desks, we answered the phones and heard the same that those loafing sitting in the presentation hall heard. I really hate to drum on about this point, but why use the old traditional way when you can use the new time efficient one? Like I tweeted, no free lunch was the worst part about not being there. But the magical Mavis made us a marvellous lunchtime sandwich and we were happy. Adrian Gore is nothing short of falling into the same category as Mavis Bande (our office manager, she does EVERYTHING). And that category is excellent.

He handled and went through the presentation with the usual professional approach. OK, so you want to know how the business has evolved over the years, from that humble start to the current form. This is one of the slides from the presentation to show you that it is for the moment all about health and life:

I think what you have to get your head around is the fact that the company is operating in a space that is always close to peoples hearts, health and wealth. It should be closer to your head and not heart. The company really has been at the forefront of innovation and I get the sense that many follow. That is my opinion anyhow. And see how the company has "done" over the last decade, the share price has acted accordingly:

Wow, that is no mean feat. It has always been a stock that we have umm'd and ah'd about, the main reason is that private healthcare, although predictable has been a contentious issue for a long time in this county. We used to own, Netcare but booted them just over seven years ago. That is right, the piece was titled, "Netcare, scalpel please nurse" and we referred to "the venerable Manto Tshabalala Msimang". Who was then the minister of health. Since then there has been better candidates for the job, but I must say that I was a little disappointed with the same old rhetoric.

This time from the current minister, who I think is tops. Dr Aaron Motsoaledi is quoted as saying something along these lines: "Private Medical care is pricing themselves out of existence". Source ---> NHI to be passed in 2012 says health minister. Now, if that were the case and if the comfortably above inflation increases in the cost of medical insurance was biting the consumer, then the medical insurance companies would be attracting less members and not more. My solution (which would help few businesses) is that as a government employee there should be no benefit of private health insurance. No sir. If you want to improve public medical care then get the public workers to use it. You get my line of thinking here?

Plus, I understand why it is such a contentious issue. Private sector healthcare is world class. Public healthcare is well, not good relatively speaking. I want to know, where does the minister go when he gets sick? Because the principle is one thing, the reality is another. I would suggest that if we are so worried about the costs of private healthcare, then the easy answer is to improve public healthcare. So that the afore mentioned abortions do not take place in back street clinics. End of story, it is so easy for me to say, I can afford the world class healthcare we can talk about. My outdoor domestic executive (a very nice fellow by the name of Senzo) cannot. And neither can his family in rural KZN, near Eshowe, just down the drag from where I lived in Melmoth!! Those are the realities. As such, whilst the sector remains under scrutiny from officials, we will avoid it, obviously at a cost. Great company, not a sector we like sadly.