And the timing of health fund Medibank’s announcement yesterday it had posted a maiden full-year profit of $285.3 million – $35 million above forecasts – was unfortunate for local members.

For shareholders, it will be received like manna from heaven.

For the many Wagga locals that are members of the fund, it will be received like a hole in a lifeboat.

Public health provision is a serious business, soaking up a third of the entire state budget.

But as the incendiary PR war between Medibank and Calvary hospital in recent weeks has shown, private health is every bit as serious.

There seems to be no sign of a ceasefire in the war, with a looming deadline likely to pass without a compromise between the two parties. This will leave Medibank members exposed to paying larger gap fees.

The hospital and insurer have thus far failed to broker a truce on a list of “preventable complications”.

Medibank claims by failing to agree on the list, Calvary is failing to take responsibility for preventable incidents like a surgeon leaving a scalpel in a patient during surgery.

But Calvary claims the list also includes things beyond its control, like if a hip replacement patient falls while walking to the bathroom during the night, even when they’ve been explicitly ordered not to leave bed. Put simply, Medibank’s line reeks of penny pinching at the expense of patients.

Most galling for local members is the fact they are a captive audience, with Calvary the only private hospital they can reasonably access.

Just as galling is the fact Medibank’s hardline stance comes just months after it became a private entity. Voters know from bitter experience that privatisation is most often a cynical cash-grab to patch a fiscal wound.

It is force-fed on us as a way to run a business more efficiently than the union-stifled public sector. But while private companies are adept at cutting overheads, they are also keen to hold onto and increase the resultant profits.

Corporate greed will always win out over public need, as local customers of Medibank are finding out.