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High volume of international migration calls for the establishment of financial and organizational mechanisms that would ensure provision of treatment for tuberculosis (TB) among migrants. In the case of countries like Russia where budget funding goes for TB treatment, the need is acute as delivering these services is affected by social perception that they should be provided to taxpayers only. While official policies in Russia promote voluntary medical insurance as a way to cover their health care needs, the problem is that neither voluntary medical insurance, nor the National Medical Insurance Plan, extend to cover the treatment of infectious diseases, such as TB making proposal of possible alternatives to these delivery vehicles appropriate. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The analysis includes review of survey results on the extent of medical insurance coverage among migrants as well as legal provisions concerning access to medical care among migrants in Russia and some other migrant-receiving countries.

This exercise illuminates the public health risks and economic consequences related to inadequate access to medical help among migrants. Availability of medical insurance even among socially integrated segment of this group is limited. Also of notice is that citizens of Belarus as opposed to others are granted access to the full range of TB services in Russia.

Using this precedent, the authors propose an alternative mechanism – Inter-State Medical Insurance Fund – to be established by governments of CIS countries, with national allocations covering the provision of medical help to labor migrants from the respective countries in Russia.