The NHS is set to receive billions of pounds in extra funding later this year with ministers considering possible tax rises on older workers.

Theresa May will today tell Conservatives they must prove to voters that they “care enough” about the NHS if they are to beat Labour on the key battleground of public services.

It is understood there is now broad agreement within the Cabinet that extra money must be provided for the health service.

Some ministers have privately suggested an across-the-board rise in National Insurance to provide new ring-fenced funding for the NHS.

However, The Telegraph understands that officials are drawing up plans for a more targeted tax rise on older workers as part of a new 10-year funding plan for the NHS championed by Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary.

One idea under discussion is to make the 1.2 million pensioners who keep working past 65 to pay NI contributions. The move would raise £2 billion per year which could be spent on the health service.

Scrapping universal free prescriptions for the over-60s is also under discussion.

Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, opposes the idea, believing extra money for the NHS should come from the proceeds of economic growth, while Brexiteers in the Cabinet argue that the so-called Brexit dividend must be used to increase NHS spending when Britain stops paying money to Brussels.