The first of three ''election season'' debates to be held between the leaders has begun at the National Press Club.

Channels 7 and 9 are tracking a selected audience's responses to the leaders, and midway trough the debate Mr Rudd was seen to be delivering the more positive message. Mr Rudd's comments were generally rating in the high positive range, while Mr Abbott's were generally lower and often dropped into negative territory, especially when he attacked the Government.

In his opening statement, Mr Kevin Rudd referred to his youth, saying he spent a lot of time in public hospitals as a child

''As a kid growing up in country Queensland, I spent a fair share, sometimes too fair a share, sitting in ... hospitals and my mum and dad in those days didn't have a lot of money and therefore we depended on the public system,'' he said.

Mr Rudd said there were real problems in Australia's health system. There were not enough doctors and nurses, waiting lists were too long and there was ''too much bureaucracy getting in the way of getting resources to front line services''.

Costs were going through the roof, and state budgets would be overwhelmed within 20 to 30 years if there was not a change to the funding system.

It was time for national and state leaders to come together and cooperate to fix the system.

''I believe we can work across the political divide, because people are demanding that. If we can't get agreement, I'll take our plan to the people, to get a mandate to make it happen,'' he said.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, who defended his record as health minister, said Mr Rudd's biggest broken promise was not fixing the public hospital system.

“Anyone can make promises, the hard part is delivering on them and this is where Mr Rudd has consistently failed,'' he said.

He said the Government's plan would not end the blame game, and would not mean any more money for doctors, nurses or hospitals until 2014.

''That's two elections away. Hospitals are too important for amateur hour experimentation,'' he said.

He said no one, neither state nor federal ministers, would really be in charge under Mr Rudd's changes.

He also asked why people should trust the government to fix health when it was unable to manage a program putting insulation into roofs and computers into schools.

He said the Coalition would create boards to run significant hospitals, restoring control to local communities.