The long-awaited report from the government's Medicare taskforce was published on Friday, after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and state and territory leaders declared health reform their highest priority for 2023 following national cabinet's first meeting of the year.

The federal government has set aside $750 million to respond to the report's recommendations in the May budget.

But in a sobering message to patients struggling right now to access a GP, Health Minister Mark Butler said it would take a long time to turn around a system which he said had been neglected and underfunded during the Coalition's past nine years in power.

Mr Butler has for months been warning that primary care was in the worst shape it has been in 40 years, with bulk-billing rates in freefall and a diminishing number of trainee doctors choosing a career in general practice.

"I want to tell Australians honestly - it is not going to be quick," Mr Butler told reporters in Canberra.

"It is not going to be easy and its not gong to be fixed in one budget."

The taskforce's 12-page report proposed sweeping changes designed to make the primary care system easier and more affordable for patients to access.

It called for extra cash for longer patient consults and extended GP opening hours, as well as a "blended" funding model to better deal with cases of complex chronic disease.

It also recommended major upgrades to My Health Record to increase the information available to patients and sharing of data between their public and private practitioners.

Mr Butler did not rule out an increase to the Medicare rebate as he acknowledged that extra spending was needed to fix the system.

But the Health Minister said funneling more cash into the existing system wasn't the solution.

"The existing system needs to change to reflect the care needs of the Australian population in the 2020s," he said.

Australian Medical Association president Steve Robson welcomed the Medicare taskforce report, but said there was "absolutely nothing" in it to help patients and under-pressure GPs right now.

"We know that for years the Medicare system in general practice has been neglected, severely neglected," Dr Robson said.

Asked what the government was doing in the short term, Mr Butler and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese both pointed to the planned roll out of urgent care clinics, which are designed to ease pressure on emergency departments by treating patients with serious, but not life-threatening ailments.

Labor had promised to fund 50 clinics, including one on Canberra's southside, which ACT senator Katy Gallagher told voters on the night before last year's election would be up and running within the first 12 months of an Albanese government.

That promise appears to be in serious doubt after Mr Albanese on Friday said he hoped the clinics were open before the end of the year.