Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd has given his backing to the health reforms overseen by Prime Minister Julia Gillard with state premiers this week.
"The key thing is we have a major national health reform," Mr Rudd told ABC's Lateline on Tuesday night.
"The Australian public want that reform - more hospital beds, more doctors, less waiting time in accident emergency and they also want greater predictability in elective surgery."
"It's what we have been working on as a government for a number of years now."
Ms Gillard had reached a deal with the states to overhaul hospital funding with the federal government providing $16.4 billion in new money from now to 2020.
The agreement replaces the one negotiated by Mr Rudd in April 2010 when he was prime minister that would have made the Commonwealth the dominant funder of hospitals in exchange for the states and territories handing over a third of their GST revenue.
