Hospitals and healthcare centres in Victoria would be short-changed more than $2 billion under a federal government plan to cap sector spending, Daniel Andrews says.
The premier had vowed to fight hard at Friday's COAG meeting to get fairer funding for Victoria, after a draft plan was leaked to Fairfax Media.
"They are effectively not honouring the agreement we have now, and now they want us to sign up to an agreement that's not a 50-50 partnership," he said on Thursday.
The Commonwealth would short-change Victoria by $2.1 billion by capping spending growth at 6.5 per cent and not increasing the contribution rate from 45 per cent, he added.
"We need to have a proper partnership and they need to honour the agreement that we have today; there's about $100 million owed to Victorian patients," Mr Andrews said referring to the current National Health Reform Agreement.
According to the state government, the $104 million that was already owed by the federal government could pay for 100,000 chemotherapy treatments or 650 nurses.
A spokesman for federal Health Minister Greg Hunt rejected the premier's calculations, insisting Commonwealth funding had grown to "record levels".
"The numbers don't lie even if the Premier does," the spokesman said.
"The Andrews government has short-changed Victorian patients and shouldn't be trusted. We reject their claims. They are wrong."
But even Victoria's coalition opposition agreed the state deserves more.
"Our state is entitled to it's fair share and population pressures are greater in Victoria than in any other state," Opposition Leader Matthew Guy said.
Victoria had lost out under every federal government for the past 30 years, Mr Guy said.
The federal government was discussing a "generous and multi-billion dollar increase" to the states for hospital funding through until 2025, Mr Hunt's spokesman said.
