"We are a little bit insulated from it (the global financial crisis)'', Healthscope managing director Bruce Dixon said after the company's annual general meeting today.
"We have refinanced our debt in June, over a three-year facility, so from a debt side, our position is locked in,'' Mr Dixon said.
"So we don't see any impact from the global financial crisis on our company at all.''
Mr Dixon said Healthscope had headroom of $280 million on its $850 million three-year debt facility, so the company had no issues in relation to expanding its hospitals, pathology and medical centre operations, or making acquisitions.
"The thing about hospitals and pathology is they are very good cash businesses, so we actually pay down debt quite rapidly over the three years.''
Mr Dixon said demand for services in the health sector would not be adversely affected by the global financial crisis.
"In some ways, it actually goes up - in tougher times, people still get sick.
"Demand is strong, we have had a good first quarter and it's continued from the last half.
"In healthcare, the first quarter is critical to your full year earnings, and we are on budget.''
Mr Dixon said recent changes to the Medicare levy surcharge threshold would have no effect on Healthscope.
Yesterday, the Senate passed legislation raising the income level at which the Medicare levy surcharge kicks in - to $70,000 for single people without private health insurance, up from $50,000; and $140,000 for couples, up from $100,000 previously.
Critics have said the increased threshold will result in many people dropping their private health cover, as well as premium hikes and more people using public hospitals
"We don't think it is going to impact Healthscope at all because we have locked our (contract) rates home for the next one to three years,'' Mr Dixon said.
"And 80 per cent of our patients are 50 years and older, so the private health system actually services more of the elderly client.
"They are very unlikely to drop out from health insurance.
"The levy surcharge will impact private health insurance members under 30, and they simply don't access health care services.''
Healthscope reported an annual net profit of $64.4 million for 2007/08, down 23.3 per cent on the $84 million for the prior year.
Net profit after tax from continuing operations, before non-recurring items, was up 14 per cent to $74.9 million.
In August, Mr Dixon said the group was aiming to expand the number of beds at existing hospitals by about 1,000, or about 20 per cent, over the next three years as a number of hospitals were at, or approaching, full capacity.
Healthscope was looking for bolt-on acquisitions for its pathology business and wanted to aggressively boost its medical centres operations.
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