Overhauling Australia's ailing primary care network will be a top priority for Victoria at national cabinet this year.
Visiting a newly opened urgent primary care clinic Premier Daniel Andrews said state-run hospitals were too often acting as a safety net amid a ongoing shortage of bulk-billing general practitioners.
"This is not our job," he told reporters at the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Centre in Heidelberg on Tuesday.
"We run hospitals for the commonwealth government through Medicare to run the primary care system, and that system is broken. You cannot find a bulk-billing doctor, particularly out of hours, and that's not the way it should be.
"That's why this needs to be a key priority for reform around the national cabinet table in 2023."
Mr Andrews expressed confidence other state and territory leaders would join Victoria in pressuring the Albanese government to embark on reforming the system this year.
"We can't have a situation where Medicare doesn't work and all of those patients, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of patients across the nation, are forced into already busy emergency departments," he added.
Victoria has opened 10 of the 25 urgent primary care clinics it promised for the state as part of a partnership with NSW in late August.
Another 12 are on track to open in February under the $70 million package.
The COVID-related 50-50 health funding deal between the Commonwealth and state and territory governments expired at the end of 2022 after being granted a three-month extension.
Mr Andrews reiterated his opposition to reverting back to a 45-55 funding split, citing that the COVID-19 pandemic was not over.
"Either you fund health properly or you don't," he said.
"We're spending $70 million in an area that has got nothing to do with the responsibilities of the state ... but we can't play our part and the Commonwealth government's part forever. That's just not a sustainable fix."
