Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon has accused the federal opposition of trying to force people on low incomes to pay private health insurance.

She said Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull believed everyone should be on private health insurance.

"The reason that Mr Turnbull wants to get rid of private health insurance measures that the government has proposed in the budget is because he believes, and has explicitly said, that every Australian should have private health insurance," Ms Roxon told reporters in Melbourne on Saturday.

"What that means is that every pensioner, every veteran, every family no matter what their income should have private health insurance."

Ms Roxon said the government of former prime minister John Howard had spent most of its time in office attacking public hospitals and now the Liberals in opposition were attacking families and trying to get everyone to have private health insurance.

The Rudd government's measures made it clear that those people who could most afford it should contribute more to private health insurance, she said.

That included couples earning more than $240,000, she said.