Malcolm Turnbull has accused Bill Shorten of peddling "extraordinary and audacious" lies about the coalition's plans for Medicare.
Any improvements to the way Medicare interacts with Australians will be done within and by government, he says.
"There will be no outsourcing of any elements of the Medicare service currently delivered by government, full stop. There is no privatisation of Medicare," the prime minister told reporters in Sydney on Sunday.
Mr Shorten told the official Labor campaign launch the election was a referendum on Medicare.
Coalition campaign spokesman Mathias Cormann wasn't fazed by the prospect of an intense battle on healthcare during the remaining fortnight.
"If this election is a referendum on Medicare then people around Australia will be supporting the coalition strongly," he told reporters in Canberra.
He accused the Labor leader of misleading former prime minister Bob Hawke into promoting a position based on a lie, referring to ads featuring Mr Hawke urging people to guard Medicare from privatisation.
