Streeting: I'd rather tax the rich more than bring insurance into NHS
The Department of Health and Social Care is one of several departments that has received 'ringfenced' funding in this year's spending review, which will be announced by Rachel Reeves next month.
Mr Streeting also said Reform was 'genuinely' Labour's 'main opposition' after the collapse of the Conservative vote at the local elections earlier this month.
Leaflets sent to voters by Labour during the campaign were designed to look like medical bills, detailing a £75,000 charge for NHS services including a GP appointment, MRI scan and ambulance trip.
Mr Streeting's comments will raise concerns that the Government will put up taxes in the next four years to pay for NHS services, which he said were facing an 'existential' crisis.
He said: 'The principles of the NHS are contested. The crisis makes it existential, [and] so do the challenges.
'And so it's my job and the job of this Labour Government to get the NHS back on its feet, to get it out of the worst crisis in its history, but also to make it sustainable for the long term, fit for the future, and to defend the principles upon which the NHS was founded.'
Jokes about private schools
During Monday's event, Mr Streeting also joked about private schools that have complained about the end of charitable relief on VAT and business rates.
Taxing private schools more will raise £90 million a year for the Treasury by 2029, but parents and teachers have said it will lead to the closure of schools and more pressure on the state sector.
'There was a point at which almost every day there was some kind of terrible case study of someone who was going to kind of struggle to go on all of their family holidays because of changes to private school fees,' Mr Streeting said.
'Private schools were going to be shutting in enormous numbers.
'You mean the same sort of numbers there have been over the last decade, when you've been doing inflation-busting increases on your own school fees? Come on, guys, keep it credible.'
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