全文翻译自纽约时报5月29日文章
原题：China’s Ill, and Wealthy, Look Abroad for Medical Treatment
作者：Sui-Lee Wee（Zhang Tiantian对本文亦有贡献）
译者：冬天毛
冬天毛导读：
平心而论，纽约时报的这篇报道颇有点比上不足比下有余的美国医疗体系强行从中国找自信的感觉；不过冬天毛也感觉这不是大多数人应该关注的问题。
反之，对美国的医疗体系有兴趣的读者姥爷可以进一步阅读投资百科全书：美国医疗如此昂贵的6个原因（完整译文），以了解美国自身现有医疗体系的一些弊病。链接在文末也能找到。
纽约时报（The New York Times）是一家日报，于1851年创办，是美国严肃报刊的代表。由于风格古典严肃，它有时也被戏称为“灰色女士”（The Gray Lady）。
（维基百科）
副标题：
Hospitals and a new generation of medical tourism companies are luring well-heeled Chinese patients away from an overburdened health care system.
海外医院和新兴的医疗旅行公司，正在招引有钱的中国病人离开不堪重负的中国医疗系统。
正文：
BEIJING — China’s medical system could not stop the cancer eating at Guo Shushi’s stomach. It roared back even after Mr. Guo, a 63-year-old real estate developer, endured surgery, chemotherapy and radiation at two hospitals.
北京消息——中国的医疗系统无法阻止癌症继续蚕食郭舒时（音）的胃。郭先生是一位63岁的房地产开发商，先后在两家医院捱过了手术、化疗和放疗，但之后癌细胞还是卷土重来。
Then his son-in-law discovered online that — for a price — companies were willing to help critically ill Chinese people seek treatment abroad. Soon Mr. Guo was at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, receiving a new immunotherapy drug, Keytruda, which is not available in China. In April, nearly four months later, his tumor has shrunk and his weight has gone up.
随后，他的女婿在网上发现，只要肯花钱，就有公司愿意帮助身患危疾的中国人在海外寻求治疗。很快，郭先生就来到了波士顿的达纳-法伯癌症研究所，并开始使用一种在免疫疗法的新药，Keytruda，而这种药物在中国无处可寻。在将近四个月后的4月，他的肿瘤缩小，体重回升了。
“When I arrived, I could feel how large the gap was,” said Mr. Guo of the difference in care.
谈到治疗的差别，郭先生说：“我一到那里，就感受到了两边差距有多大。”
The cost: about $220,000 — all paid out of pocket.
代价：大约22万美元，全部由患者自掏腰包。
China’s nearly 1.4 billion people depend on a strained and struggling health care system that belies the country’s rise as an increasingly wealthy global power. But more and more, the rich are finding a way out.
中国将近1.4亿的人口所赖以生存的医疗系统不堪重负、勉强运作，让人难以相信中国正在崛起成为一个日益富有的全球强国；然而，越来越多的中国富人也开始找到了出路。
Western hospitals and a new group of well-connected companies are reaching for well-heeled Chinese patients who need lifesaving treatments unavailable at home. The trend is a twist on the perception of medical tourism as a way to save money, often on noncritical procedures like dental work and face-lifts. For these customers, getting out of China is a matter of life or death.
西方国家的各家医院和一批神通广大的中介公司正在招揽有钱但无法在本国获取必要治疗的中国绝症病患。人们一般会认为医疗旅行是出于省钱的目的，并且往往限于无伤大雅的医疗程序，例如牙科和面部拉皮手术，然而新的潮流正在打破这些传统观念：对这些病人来说，离开中国是生死攸关的。
Medical care is just one manifestation of China’s wide wealth disparity. A new generation of affluent Chinese can seek help at private hospitals or go abroad, even as the rest endure long waits and find their treatment falling short.
医疗仅仅是中国庞大贫富差距的表现之一。中国的新一代富裕人群能够在私人医院或是海外机构就医，即便其他人不得不忍受漫长的等待，并发现他们接受的治疗力有不逮。
Chinese people took an estimated 500,000 outbound medical trips last year, a fivefold increase from a year earlier, according to Ctrip.com International, a Chinese travel booking company, which offers medical travel on its website. While the bulk of that is focused on plastic surgery and routine examinations, medical travel agencies say the number of critically ill Chinese patients leaving the country for medical treatment is growing.
携程旅行网是中国的一家旅行订票公司，其网站上也提供医疗旅游服务，而据其报告，去年中国人出国就医的总数约为50万次，是上一年的5倍。虽然其中大多数都是为了做整形手术和常规检查，但医疗旅游机构们也表示，出国求医的危症病人数量在不断增长。
“China is among the countries where we have seen the greatest growth in recent years,” Dr. Stephanie L. Hines, the chairwoman of executive health and international medicine at the Mayo Clinic, said in an email.
斯蒂芬妮·L·汉斯是梅奥医院（冬天毛注：世界著名的医疗机构，位于明尼苏达州）的经理健康（冬天毛注：专门为商务精英提供医疗咨询服务的项目）和国际医疗主管，她在电子邮件中表示：“中国是我们近年来业务量增长最快的国家之一。”
郭舒时（音）是一位到美国寻求癌症治疗的中国公民，图为他治疗期间在波士顿居住的公寓。
At Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, employees help patients with travel and lodging. Mass General, Mayo Clinic and Boston Children’s Hospital provide interpreters.
在波士顿的麻省总医院，员工们会为病人办理旅行和住宿手续；麻省总医院、梅奥医院和波士顿儿童医院都会提供翻译人员。
Mr. Guo is one of more than 1,000 patients that one company based in Beijing, Hope Noah Health Company, says it helped last year — a number it says was double that of the year before. Upon arriving in the United States or Japan, the two countries to which Hope Noah sends people, patients are greeted at the airports by Hope Noah employees and whisked off to a rented apartment. When they head to the hospital, a Hope Noah translator is by their side.
位于北京的厚朴方舟健康管理公司声称其去年一共为1000多名患者提供了中介服务，是之前一年的两倍，而郭先生就是这些患者中的一位。厚朴方舟将患者们送到美国或日本，其员工到机场为患者接机，并迅速将其领到租赁的公寓里。当患者前往医院时，会有一名厚朴方舟的翻译员伴随左右。
As recently as the 1970s, China’s health care system provided cradle-to-grave medical support. But despite a huge health care reform plan, its public hospitals are overburdened, with too few beds and doctors to deliver the kind of care that many in the West take for granted. A 2015 study by The Lancet based on United Nations criteria found that China ranked 92 out of 188 countries, after Cuba and Mexico.
直到1970年代时，中国的医疗系统还在提供终生医疗服务，然而尽管进行了大规模的医疗改革，中国的公立医院还是不堪重负，没有足够的床位和医生，无法提供在很多西方人心目中理所当然的医疗服务。2015年，《柳叶刀》医疗期刊根据联合国标准进行的研究结果显示，中国的医疗健康水平在188个国家中名列92，排在古巴和墨西哥之后。
The government has increased spending and encouraged private investors to address the problem. A total of about 4.3 million cancer cases were diagnosed in China in 2015, or almost 12,000 cases a day, compared with 2.4 million in 2010, according to the state-run news media. The five-year survival rate of Chinese cancer patients is around 30 percent, compared with about 70 percent in the United States, according to China’s National Cancer Prevention and Research Center.
为了应对这些问题，中国政府提高了医疗投入，并鼓励医疗领域的私人投资。根据中国国营新闻媒体报道，2015年中国一共有大约430万例癌症确诊，平均一天约有1.2万例，与2010年的240万例形成对比。据中国国家癌症中心报告，中国癌症患者的5年存活率约为30%，而美国则为70%。
Patients often have to travel to Hong Kong and Macau — regions of China governed by their own laws — to buy foreign drugs, which on the mainland face an approval process that takes three to five years. The drug that Mr. Guo is using, Keytruda, was approved for use only last year in a medical tourism pilot zone in the southern Chinese island of Hainan.
由于外国药品在中国大陆需三至五年才能获批，患者为了购买药品，往往需要前往香港和澳门，后者是中国的自治区，沿用自己的法律。郭先生使用的药物，Keytruda，直到去年才获批在中国南部的海南岛上的医疗旅游先行区使用（冬天毛注：海南博鳌乐城国际医疗旅游先行区）。
In top public hospitals in the top-tier Chinese cities, lines begin forming just after midnight. Appointments for the best doctors are snapped up before dawn. For those who can afford it, tickets can be bought from scalpers hawking appointment numbers. In March, the authorities in Beijing said that they would bar public hospitals from imposing consultation fees on patients, in a bid to reduce public discontent.
在中国一线城市的顶级公立医院，人们刚过午夜就开始排起队伍。天还没亮，最好的医生们的预约就已经被抢订一空；出得起价的人可以从票贩子那里购买他们叫卖的预约号。三月，北京当局称将禁止公立医院向患者收取挂号费，以降低公众的不满。
By contrast, Mr. Guo said his experience at Dana-Farber was “more humane.” Mr. Guo’s doctor let him speak. There was easy access to food and beverages. The waiting area had a couch.
与此相对的，郭先生表示他在达纳-法伯的体验“更加人道”。郭先生的医生允许他发表意见，患者可以不费力地拿到食物和饮料，等候区有沙发可以坐。
“In China, the most that we can get is a metal chair,” he said, speaking by videoconference from his apartment in Boston. “Even having a cup of hot water is inconvenient.”
他在他波士顿的公寓中，在视频会议里说：“在中国，我们最多也只能坐在铁凳子上，就连拿杯热水都很不方便。”
But the benefits can be fleeting. “The biggest challenge that we’ve had is ensuring continuity of care when the patient returns back home to China,” said Misty Hathaway, who leads Mass General’s Center for Specialized Services.
但这边的好处只是暂时的。米丝蒂·哈萨威是麻省总医院专门服务中心的主任，她表示：“我们最大的困难，就是确保患者返回中国后仍能够继续接受治疗。”
Oscar Zhou, who founded Ryavo Health Management of Shanghai, another medical travel agency, said he had started to shift his business into one that helped clients look for drugs in Hong Kong and Macau as well as doctors who could treat the problem domestically.
另一家医疗旅游机构，上海瑞弗健康管理有限公司的创始人奥斯卡·周表示，他已经开始将业务内容转型为向帮助客户在香港和澳门搜寻药物，以及寻找能够在国内治疗病症的医生。
31岁的桥梁设计师赵晓清（音）在她位于南京的办公室里。她此前带着5岁的女儿前往德国接受了质子治疗。
“It has caused a lot of problems. Many patients go overseas, and indeed, for several months, it’s good,” Mr. Zhou said, adding that he thought the outlook for businesses from a pure medical travel standpoint was limited. “But when they return, if their treatment can’t keep up, then it’s useless.”
周先生说：“这（病人回国）造成了很多问题。很多病人出了国，几个月后病情确实好转了，但他们回国后一旦治疗跟不上，就是白费工夫。”并补充说，他认为单纯的医疗旅游的业务前景是有限的。
Others are more bullish. Cai Qiang — the founder of Beijing Saint Lucia Hospital Management Consulting Company, in which the Silicon Valley venture capital firm Sequoia Capital has invested an undisclosed amount — says his number of clients has increased to about 1,000 last year, from just two in 2011.
在他之外，也有人对业务前景更加看好。北京圣诺一家医院管理咨询公司从硅谷创业投资公司红杉资本那里收到了一笔没有公开数额的投资，其创始人蔡强（音）表示，他的客户数量从2011年的仅仅2人，上升到了去年的约1000人。
Mr. Cai, who is widely considered the pioneer of medical travel in China, is trying to narrow the cultural gap between his Chinese clients and American hospitals.
蔡先生被广泛认为是中国医疗旅游的业务先驱，而他目前正在努力消除中国客户和美国医院之间的文化隔阂。
He recalled how an American hospital called him in for an “emergency meeting” after a Chinese patient walked unannounced into a doctor’s office with a question. The doctor was in the middle of treating someone else.
他回忆起，曾有一家美国医院急召他来参加“紧急会议”，起因是因为一位遇到问题的中国患者未经预约就进入了医生的办公室，而那位医生还在为另外一名患者诊疗。
“In China, we have no concept of privacy,” Mr. Cai said, adding that his company had since set up a “patient education” department on the “dos” and “don’ts” in hospitals abroad. “It wasn’t the patient’s fault. It was ours.”
蔡先生说：“在中国，我们没有隐私的概念。这不怪患者，是我们的错。”并补充说，他的公司自那时起便设立了“患者教育”部门，普及在海外医院“该做”和“不该做”的事。
Mr. Cai said he started the company after being moved by the friendliness of Australia’s doctors and nurses when his daughter was born.
蔡先生表示，自己的女儿出生时，他被澳大利亚的医生护士的友善感动，而成立了这家公司。
“Every year, there are so many Chinese people who buy imported cars, clothes, cosmetics,” Mr. Cai said. “They go abroad to travel and send their children to study abroad. Why can’t a Chinese person consider going overseas to see a doctor if they are seriously ill?”
蔡先生说：“每年都有那么多中国人买进口的车、衣服和化妆品，他们到海外旅行，送子女留学。那么中国人如果得了重病，不也可以考虑到海外就医吗？”
Last November, Zhao Xiaoqing, 31, a bridge designer in the Chinese city of Nanjing, took her 5-year-old daughter, Kefei, to the Essen University Hospital in Germany to get proton therapy treatment for her child’s brain tumor. The treatment is available in Shanghai only for children 14 and above. She spent about $140,000, more than half of that borrowed from relatives.
赵晓清（音）是中国南京市的一位桥梁设计师，她去年11月时带着5岁的女儿可霏前往德国埃森大学医院接受质子治疗，以治愈孩子的脑肿瘤。在上海，这项治疗仅限14岁或以上的未成年人接受。赵女士总共花费了大约14万美元，其中一多半都是从亲戚那里借来的。
Kefei’s tumor shrank. Ms. Zhao, who went to Germany with Ryavo Healthcare, is a satisfied customer, saying she was willing to spend double what she had paid.
最后，可霏的肿瘤缩小了，而通过瑞弗健康前往德国的赵女士也成了一位心满意足的顾客，表示就算花两倍于此的价钱也不冤。
“After going abroad, you can see that the middlemen are not exaggerating,” she said. “In fact, what they’ve told us pales in comparison to what we’ve experienced.”
她说：“出国后，你就会知道中介没有夸大其词。事实上，与我们的实际经历相比较，使他们给我们讲的那些都黯然失色了。”
正文到此结束
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