Karnataka’s government has funded more than 500 organ transplants for below-poverty-line (BPL) patients since 2019. A total of 528 transplants have been done, including 395 kidneys, 57 hearts, 73 livers, and 3 bone marrow transplants. The state also covered 6,276 cycles of post-transplant immunosuppression medicines, vital for patients’ survival. The scheme, run by Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust (SAST), fully pays for surgery and lifelong medicines for BPL patients. "The objective of the scheme is to ensure that no eligible BPL patient in Karnataka is denied organ transplantation because of cost," said Harsh Gupta, Principal Secretary (Health). The scheme started in 2019 and was expanded in January 2025 to include more types of transplants. It covers kidney, heart, liver, heart-lung, lung, and allogenic bone marrow transplants. Financial help ranges from ₹2 lakh for kidney surgeries to ₹22.5 lakh for complex heart-lung transplants. Annual medicine costs up to ₹1 lakh are also covered. The government has spent ₹22.16 crore on surgeries and ₹6.28 crore on medicines, totalling ₹28.44 crore so far. This program is one of the few in India fully funded by a state government, helping poor patients access high-cost, life-saving treatments. To use the scheme, patients must first visit a public hospital or approved district hospital for evaluation. They then register for an organ transplant and get approval from an authorisation committee. Cadaveric transplants follow the Jeevasarthakathe allotment policy, managed by the State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (SOTTO).