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Backlash against changes to private health for chronic pain

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Tackling chronic pain
Online programs are being used to help remote Australians deal with chronic pain.(Flickr: Christian Bucad)

Pain specialists are warning there could be disastrous consequences if private health coverage for chronic pain is changed.

Reforms to the private health system will see the introduction of bronze, silver and gold categories from April next year in a bid to simplify the system and help consumers understand what they're covered for.

But pain experts say it has also proposed to move hospital treatment for chronic pain into the most expensive gold category, which they claim would push people into an already strained public system and some could turn to opioid use.

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Carol Bennett, chief executive, Pain Australia
Dr Marc Russo, pain specialist
Josh, chronic pain sufferer

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