The Rudd Government will offer almost $8billion to state and territory treasurers today in a record health funding package, in a meeting that will set the scene for tomorrow's Council of Australian Governments meeting.
Treasurers began arriving in Canberra last night for the summit, which is expected to focus on health and education.
The two items also form the main agenda tomorrow, when Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will face premiers and chief ministers to carve up federal funds, days after declaring he was prepared to allow the budget to go into deficit temporarily.
Today, the Commonwealth will offer an extra $6.5 billion over five years for public hospitals to reduce waiting lists.
The two other key components of the federal health package are $800 million to tackle chronic disease in indigenous communities and $450 million for health programs, such as promoting healthy diets and exercise.
The funds include $1.1 billion to train more doctors and nurses in what Federal Government sources said last night was the single biggest federal investment in the health workforce.
Treasurer Wayne Swan's total offer will deliver $63.6 billion for health and hospital services over the next five years.
This was a 50 per cent increase on the $42billion provided by the Howard government in the last health funding agreement, officials said.
The former Coalition government had withdrawn $1 billion from the last health-care agreements in 2003, making it difficult for states and territories to expand medical school places, they said.
The Rudd Government's new investment will support a ''massive expansion'' in undergraduate clinical training places in public hospitals, with student numbers expected to increase from 63,000 in 2009 to 78,000 in 2013.
The states and territories are expected to provide matching funds of $540 million under the proposed partnership.
The extra funds will train 18,000 nurse supervisors and expand teaching and training, especially at major regional hospitals.
The money for public hospitals includes a rate of indexation of 7.3 per cent to better reflect growth in health-care costs.
A federal briefing paper says the $800million for improving indigenous health is a ''further sign of our [the Rudd Government's] commitment to close the appalling life expectancy gap''.
''This package will focus on tackling chronic disease in the indigenous community the biggest contributor towards indigenous peoples' low life expectancy,'' it says.
The funding for preventive health will include a target of reducing the daily smoking rate from 16.6 per cent to 10 per cent of the population within 10 years.