Medicare changes shouldn't cost more: Ley

Health Minister Sussan Ley insists removing several procedures from Medicare "shouldn't" increase costs for patients.

The federal government's review of the Medicare Benefits Schedule has flagged 23 items for removal, worth almost $7 million in 2014/15.

Ms Ley admits some of the savings will be handed over to Treasury instead of being reinvested in health, but told ABC radio on Tuesday costs for patients shouldn't rise as a result of the changes.

Acting Labor leader Tanya Plibersek said the problem was that money from defunded programs would not go back into the health system.

Ms Plibersek said she defunded items from the Medicare Benefit Schedule as former health minister, but funnelled the money back to health care.

"What's distressing ... is that those savings aren't going back into the health system, they're going back into the budget bottom line," she told reporters in Sydney on Tuesday.

"When we defunded a treatment that was no longer working, there was always demand from new treatments."