The health insurer's chief executive made the comments as nib delivered its full year results for 2019 on Monday, announcing a net profit of $149.3 million - up 11.8 per cent from the previous year.

In a strong performance, nib recorded:

Mr Fitzgibbon described the result as "tremendous", saying the company had grown its top line in a tough market.

"The result was good and the market reaction we expected, because investors are interested in what you have done, but more in what you think will do," he said.

"They are used to us growing each year but, hand on heart, we are firstly interested in doing more for members than we are making more profits but equally believing that if we do that.. as we have, the commercial results will follow."

He noted that with the industry "shrinking a little bit" in terms of the percentage of private health coverage, nib was "swimming against that tide" with its net policyholder growth of 2.1 per cent: "That is the impressive part of the result, we have done that consistently for 15 years, beating the average," he said.

Though nib noted grow and diversification the lion's share of its so-called "adjacent" businesses - including international workers and student insurance - its "flagship" Australian Residents Health Insurance (ARHI) delivered $149.5 million - or just under 75 per cent - of its group operating profit.

Mr Fitzgibbon said market conditions were challenging at a macro level, with households budgets tightening and health insurance seen as a discretionary spend.

"Affordability is an issue, even though our average premium is the lowest in 15 years and we think it'll be lower next year, and people get frustrated when they have private health insurance and incur out of pocket costs," he said.

"We can't fix the macro circumstances but we can push hard to improve what we are bringing to people."

This included helping customers with hospital and medical bills and "guiding" them in making health care decisions by improving their health "literacy".

"We are trying to create a world where we help people closely engage with the health care system more easily and, without getting too esoteric, the biggest priority is how do we personalise it," he said.

"Our vision is that we want to help you pay the bill so you can see the best doctors but we want to be there helping you to understand your risk profile ... . Advanced health care around the world is putting as much effort into prevention as into cure."

Though nib's travel insurance business fell from $8.1 million last year to $6.6 million, Mr Fitzgibbon said the company was investing heavily in its growth.

He continued his calls for health care reform to ensure a more just system.

"Nowhere have I said we should abolish Medicare ... what I have said is that we need a system of universal health care where no-one gets left behind," he said.

"Whichever [provider] people are insured with should be able to cover the full suite of costs, well we can't, Medicare can't, so I'm asking for a mature policy debate on how to improve this - let's call it Medicare 2.0."