Queensland Health Minister Stephen Robertson said the proposal was made in his government's submission to the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission, lodged on Friday.
Robertson said that under the former Howard government, the commonwealth share of public hospital funding fell from about 50 per cent to about 35 per cent.
But at the same time, pressures on the health system had increased due to an ageing and growing Queensland population.
"This means the state has had to over-compensate for the litany of previous failures by the Howard government in order to meet growing demand in primary and aged care sectors," he said.
The submission calls on the commonwealth to provide funding for primary care, including hospitals and services in rural and remote areas, and non-emergency services provided in emergency rooms.
It asks for the Medicare system to be reformed to boost chronic disease prevention and allow all specialist outpatient services provided by the states to offer bulk-billing.
In the area of aged care, the state asks the federal government to foot the bill for seniors who need aged care but remain in a hospital although there is no medical need.
Robertson said Queensland had proposed to accept responsibility for areas such as indigenous health, mental health and public health, as well as public hospitals.
"In this new era of cooperative federalism, we are asking the commonwealth to accept responsibility for primary and aged care services and to return to a fair share of funding for acute health services," he said.
"This is the chance for renewal, and an opportunity to put right what the former Howard government got badly wrong."
