Not a healthy option to migrate, labourers feel M. Sai Gopal Imagine the plight of a migratory worker, with no health insurance to fall back on, in the capital when he is told by doctors that he has to undergo a heart surgery. This happened to Ramakanth Swain, a migrant worker from Odisha, who was struggling with breathlessness and stiffness of the chest. The labourer was stunned when doctors revealed that at private hospitals, the surgery would cost more than Rs. 1 lakh, and that at government hospitals, the expense would be anywhere between Rs. 50,000 and Rs. 60,000. “The patient was lucky because we met a philanthropist who was willing to donate Rs. 50,000 to purchase the stent. It is difficult to arrange funds for everyone like this,” confess heart surgeons from Gandhi Hospital who took up the surgery. Migrant workers like Ramakanth, who have come to the city from States like Odisha and Bihar for livelihood, find themselves in a tough state if any of them falls sick and needs expensive treatment. With none of them covered under the ‘Arogyasri’ insurance scheme, they either return to their native towns or approach private lenders for loans. Doctors at Gandhi Hospital and Osmania General Hospital point out that they are not able to treat several such patients, mostly migrant workers, who need costly procedures like stent implants for heart blocks or implants for bone fractures owing to lack of funds. There is a need to revive the State Illness Assistance Funds (SIAF), designed specially for such patients,” is the stock refrain from doctors. For such patients, the Central government had set up the Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi (RAN) to offer financial support. To access RAN funds, the health authorities had set up SIAF. However, the tardy implementation of the scheme resulted in no-use of funds allocated under the RAN scheme. Under the scheme, the Central government will deposit 50 per cent of the amount deposited by the State government, and a maximum of Rs. 5 crore can be allocated to SIAF. Persons familiar with the issue said that every year, close to Rs. 6 crore worth funds meant for treatment of patients not covered under Arogyasri are left unused. “There is a need to utilize the funds for migrant workers who do not have insurance,” doctors point out.