Opposition Leader
Labor on Monday announced it would make the government-owned private health insurer declare a "special one-off dividend" of $300 million to help fund its election promises.
The announcement was buried in a press release from Treasurer Wayne Swan.
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"I think the Australian public should be very concerned about the news," Mr Abbott told reporters while campaigning in suburban Brisbane on Tuesday.
"It's a sneak attack on the families of Australia. It's a sneak attack on the three million policyholders with Medibank Private."
Mr Abbott said the dividend was equivalent to an eight per cent rise in private health insurance premiums.
The decision also showed federal Labor was acting like its state and territory counterparts by asset stripping government entities.
Mr Swan said Medibank Private had "very strong" reserves to adequately pay the dividend and dismissed suggestions premiums would increase by eight per cent.
"What will push up prices is the Liberal Party's proposal to privatise it," he told reporters in Tuggerah, on the NSW central coast.
"It will remove from the system a competitor that puts downward pressure on prices."
