Quote Originally Posted by skeetaus View Post
Also who owns BUPA. Share holders? Can they be spoken to by individuals?
Perhaps you aren't such an outside. BUPA is slowly but surely trying to run the world of health care, carefully and progressively merging and acquiring medical facilities all over the world.

Here's some extract from their wikipedia entry to highlight the real BUPA

Overview

Bupa (originally, the British United Provident Association) was formed in 1947. Initially, Bupa was purely a UK health insurance provider, offering policies to individuals, companies and other organisations. This continues to be the largest business within the company and around half of Britain's top companies are presently Bupa customers.

Over the years it has diversified away from its core health insurance business and is now an internationally established health insurance and care company with services that include health insurance, care homes, health assessments, occupational health services and childcare.

Bupa is a private company limited by guarantee; it has no shareholders, and any profits (after tax) are reinvested in the business.

Operations

The company has its head office in central London, with main contact centres in Staines and Salford Quays. Bupa also has offices in Brighton (Bupa International), Bristol (Bupa Health Assurance), Ashford, Surrey (Information Systems) and Leeds (Bupa Care Services).

Bupa has businesses in Asia, Australia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Thailand. It also owns several healthcare companies overseas including Spain's largest healthcare company, Sanitas, and acquired IHI Danmark (Copenhagen, Denmark) and Amedex (Miami, US) in September 2005. In November 2006, Bupa acquired Clinovia, the UK’s home healthcare specialist, in a move that gave BUPA new opportunities in the expanding out of hospital care market. In December 2007, Bupa purchased DCA Agedcare Group in Australia and New Zealand, making it a leading player in these markets. Also in December 2007, Bupa announced the purchase of Health Dialog, a leading provider of chronic condition management and ‘shared decision making’ services.

During 2008, Bupa acquired the Cromwell Hospital in London to create a flagship hospital in England’s capital, providing healthcare to Bupa members and other private patients, including those living outside the UK, who wish to be treated in London. Approval was given for the merger between Bupa's Australian arm and insurance group MBF, which also includes HBA and Mutual Community. The merger created Australia's largest private healthcare insurer. Bupa International and International Medical Insurers had their launch event to celebrate their collaboration, making International Medical Insurers(IMI) the sole distributor for BUPA plans in Singapore. On 1 December 2008, Clinovia's name was changed to Bupa Home Healthcare Bupa recently announced its entry into the Indian health insurance market through a joint venture with local conglomerate, Max India. The new venture is called Max Bupa Health Insurance Limited.