The Albanese government has locked in a hospital-funding agreement to provide an extra $25 billion to state and territory governments after protracted talks.
The deal was struck on Friday after multiple rounds of failed negotiations over plans that would also aim to limit growth in spending on the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
But the start of a program to move children with mild to moderate levels of autism off the NDIS and into state-based programs under the $2 billion so-called Thriving Kids scheme has been delayed by several months ahead of its full implementation in 2028.
Health Minister Mark Butler on Sunday could not say how much the changes would lead to in budget savings for the $50 billion-per-year NDIS.
Labor is trying to limit annual NDIS spending growth to six per cent.
"This is a very big program for the Commonwealth," he told Sky News.
"We've got to go through a budget process to work out the timeframe for getting growth rates down.
"We've got to go through a process with the disability community to co-design the changes that will deliver those savings."
The NDIS rapidly expanded and "got off the tracks" under the former coalition government, Mr Butler said.
Opposition health spokeswoman Anne Ruston welcomed the deal, which includes an extra $25 billion for hospitals over five years, but criticised how long it took to strike.
"Quite frankly, two years to negotiate a deal and leaving the states and territories and Australians who need hospital services in limbo is really quite unacceptable," she said.
States and territories required the extra funding due to the Albanese government's failures, Senator Ruston said, echoing criticisms from some state Labor administrations that older people were being kept in hospitals because of aged-care shortages.
"We've seen thousands and thousands of older Australians that are bed-blocked in our hospital system, costing hundreds of millions of dollars, because of the government's failure in aged care," she said.
Mr Butler also announced on Sunday that Australians with an aggressive form of prostate cancer would save $900 on scripts for a newly subsidised medication.
Andrigo-10 blocks hormones that fuel cancer growth and will be available to patients for $25 or $7.70 for those with a concession card.
"(Prostate) cancer is the most common cancer for men ... and still takes about 4000 men's lives every single year," Mr Butler said.
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