Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has broken an election promise with his plan to transfer hospital funding from the states to Canberra, the opposition says.
Local networks would run public hospitals with the commonwealth contributing 60 per cent of all costs up from about 40 per cent now.
But opposition health spokesman Peter Dutton said the failure of the government to commit to paying 100 per cent of hospital costs would create more tensions with the states and territories.
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"The prime minister, clearly, has broken a core election promise from 2007," he told reporters.
"The Australian public heard Kevin Rudd say he would end the blame game - this just pours petrol on the blame game."
Mr Dutton criticised the policy document for failing to explain transitional and constitutional arrangements, or the science behind the 60:40 funding split.
"There must be, in all this, a swelling of the bureaucracy despite the prime minister's assurances today," he said.
"It has to oversee hundreds of regional health services which are based on failed area health services in NSW."
The coalition wants local boards for individual hospitals, with two to three hospitals allowed on a board in some regions.
The federal government is proposing local networks consisting of one to four public hospitals.
