The federal government appears backpedalling from an earlier commonwealth health reform agreement that guarantees government funding for the bulk of required finances for Australian public hospitals.

Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan dodged away from growing concerns raised about the plan, which was forged during the time of former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and implementation of which has been doubted lately with the change of governments in New South Wales and Victoria.

The plan calls for the commonwealth to shoulder up to 60 percent of future funding for government-owned hospitals and in return, beneficiary states and territories would be required to surrender some 35 percent of their GST revenues.

In an interview with Sky News, Swan merely affirmed that the federal government remains committed with the health reform plan but refused to state categorically that in giving its commitment to the plan, the government would automatically shoulder much of the financial obligations.

Swan declared that the commonwealth is "absolutely committed to health reform," but he quickly added that "we've got to sit down with the states at COAG (Council of Australian Governments) and go through all of that detail again."

The federal treasurer also stressed that financing the health reform plan is a critical issue that should be carefully discussed with premiers attending the COAG meet, adding that it would be inappropriate at this time to speculate on funding questions, which he said is best left to the discussions between Australian governments.