Labour is to set up an independent commission to investigate how best to integrate health and social care.
It says without such co-ordination there will be a £29bn gap in the health budget by 2020 because of "a rising need for care as society gets older".
Ed Miliband said a Labour government would have to make money spent on the NHS go further.
It follows former leader Tony Blair's warning to avoid promising ever more public spending.
Earlier this month, Mr Blair urged Mr Miliband against "tacking left on tax and spending" amid a debate on Labour plans before the next election.
The independent commission will be led by former Department of Health specialist Sir John Oldham.
Launching it in Lancashire, Mr Miliband said NHS faced "the biggest challenge in its history". He cited figures from the Nuffield Trust, which suggest growing care needs will leave a shortfall of up to £29bn a year unless services can be delivered more efficiently.
"The toughest financial pressures for 50 years are colliding with our rising need for care as society gets older and we see more people with chronic illnesses like cancer, diabetes and dementia," Mr Miliband said.
"The NHS will always be a priority for expenditure under a Labour government, but we must make every pound we spend go further at a time when our NHS faces the risk of being overwhelmed by a crisis in funding because of care needs by the end of this decade."
Labour has said it will seek to "protect" NHS funding if re-elected while acknowledging that increasing budgets is unlikely in the current economic climate.
The coalition government has ring-fenced the NHS from spending cuts elsewhere and criticised Labour for not being prepared to match its commitment to a real-terms increase in funding every year.
However, the NHS is also having to find £20bn in efficiency savings between 2011 and 2015.
'Working together'BBC political correspondent Gary O'Donoghue said Mr Milband wanted to contrast the approach of the Blair government - which was able to put large amounts of money into the NHS - with the reality that there will not be anything like the resources for a future Labour administration to do the same.
End Quote Ed Miliband on Labour plansIt means a greater focus on preventing people getting ill and more care being provided directly in people's homes so they avoid unnecessary hospital visits"
Mr Miliband said services should be organised "around the needs of patients, rather than patients around the needs of services.
"That means teams of doctors, nurses, social workers and therapists all working together."
Care should be arranged by one person, which would end "the frustration of families being passed around between different organisations and having to repeat the same information over and over again", he said.
He added: "It means a greater focus on preventing people getting ill and more care being provided directly in people's homes so they avoid unnecessary hospital visits."
Mr Miliband attacked coalition health reforms, saying that "attempts to integrate care are being harmed by David Cameron's push to turn the NHS into a full-blown market".
'No privatisation'The government's NHS shake-up in England came into force on 1 April with GP-led groups put in charge of a large chunk of the care budget.
The changes were partly designed to encourage greater involvement from the private sector, which has opened up the government to claims it is going to privatise the health service.
Ministers have responded by saying the changes will introduce competition in a managed and balanced way.
On Monday, health minister Dan Poulter said: "The government is putting doctors and nurses at the forefront of delivering more integrated and community-based care, and thousands of patients across the country, particularly the frail elderly, are already benefiting from these changes, and will continue to do so.
"There is absolutely no government policy to privatise NHS services. Our NHS will stay free for everyone, and it's right that patients should get the best care available, regardless of who provides it, giving patients more choice of where and how they are treated."
The government has also called for closer working between the NHS and the social care sector as part of its health service reforms and changes to care for the elderly, which will bring a £75,000 cap on lifetime care costs being introduced after 2017.
At present, up to 40,000 people every year are forced into selling their homes because they face unlimited care bills.
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