Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith has rejected claims that health funding has been cut under the ACT and federal government.
Opposition health spokeswoman Leanne Castley put forward a motion in the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday, calling on the territory government to report on why it had cut health funding.
Ms Castley's motion called on the government to also write to the Commonwealth over a proposed $755 million decrease in health funding.
"Clearly not all is well in Canberra's struggling health system and the situation is going from bad to worse," Ms Castley said in her speech.
"We see the result of that neglect and lack of investment almost every day in stories of our health system at breaking point, unable to meet demand and in crisis.
"For years this government has underfunded and neglected our health system and Canberrans deserve to know that this government has underfunded our system."
The motion said that ACT government expenditure on health grew at 3.3 per cent a year between 2012 to 2019 while Commonwealth funding increased by 9.2 per cent.
Ms Stephen-Smith said it was true the Commonwealth does pay more each year but this did not apply to total hospital funding and the federal government was playing catch-up.
She said the agreement set out how the Commonwealth would pay 45 per cent of efficient growth in activity with a 6.5 per cent cap for public hospital services.
"The aim is that over time to move the Commonwealth towards the Commonwealth funding a greater proportion of hospital activity to get closer to that 45 per cent of all activity," Ms Stephen-Smith said.
"Indeed it is commonly assumed that the 45 per cent figure relates to total hospital funding so although Ms Castley's figures are incorrect, her observation that Commonwealth funding is growing more quickly than ACT annual growth is correct.
"This isn't some kind of hidden secret. This is actually the deliberate design of the National Health Reform agreement.
"All states and territories and the Commonwealth agreed to a funding arrangement that would slowly close the gap in hospital funding over time between the Commonwealth part share and an ambition getting closer to a 45 per cent share."
Ms Stephen-Smith also said the claim the federal government was not cutting health funding but rather this was based on how the agreement operates.
"This is absolutely incorrect and displays a fundamental lack of understanding of how the national health reform agreement operates... the agreement doesn't enable the Commonwealth to cut hospital funding," she said.
"The funding reflected state and territory initial estimates nationally, and forecasting by the Commonwealth treasury based on forecasts of activity that were provided by states and territories. It wouldn't have mattered who held the Commonwealth treasury benches for this specific element of the budget."
The Australian Medical Association drew attention to the proposed decrease following the federal budget in October.
The association's president Steve Robson said the reason behind the reduced forecast was because states and territories could not meet community demand. He said the states and territories did not have the ability to expand capacity due to a lack of staff and beds.
