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IN THE tiny Croatian town of Zabok patients arrive in their thousands each year from across Europe and the Middle East, seeking replacement hips or knees at the St Catherine hospital, which specialises in orthopaedic work. Some come for treatment they cannot get at home, others to escape long waiting-lists for public health care or high prices for private operations. Croatia is one of a number of treatment hotspots in the medical-tourism industry. Babies are made in Barbados, sexes are changed in Bangkok, teeth are replaced in Hungary or Mexico and hair is transplanted in Turkey (see map).在克罗地亚小镇扎博克（Zabok），每年都有成千上万欧洲和中东的患者来到这里，希望在擅长矫形外科的圣凯瑟琳医院（St Catherine hospital）接受髋关节或膝关节置换手术。有些人是为国内无法获得的治疗而来，其他人是不想在公立医院排长队或在私人诊所花大钱。克罗地亚是医疗旅游业的一批治疗热点之一。做试管婴儿去巴巴多斯，变性去曼谷，做假牙去匈牙利或墨西哥，植发去土耳其（见地图）。
Precise numbers are hard to pin down, partly because of differences between countries in what is counted as medical tourism. Some national statistics include a mere spa visit or a tourist who falls sick. Allied Market Research, a research firm, puts the industry’s value at $61bn in 2016. Keith Pollard, head of LaingBuisson, a health-care research outfit that specialises in medical-tourism data, reckons it is much smaller, at around $10bn-15bn.精确的医疗旅游人数很难确定，原因之一是各国对医疗旅游的界定不同。有些国家的统计数据把仅仅去了下水疗中心或在当地生了病的游客都算在内。联合市场研究公司（Allied Market Research）估算，2016年医疗旅游行业的价值为610亿美元。专门研究医疗旅游数据的医疗保健研究机构LaingBuisson的负责人基思·波拉德（Keith Pollard）估计的市场规模要小得多，约为100亿到150亿美元。
Rising numbers of middle-class patients in Asian and African countries mean more people willing to spend if they cannot find what they need at home. And consumers are incentivised to travel by substantial price differences across borders for the same treatment. The average heart-valve replacement, for example, costs €30,000 ($35,000) in Germany but only €15,000 next door in Austria, with little or no drop in quality. A hip operation can be had for €12,000 in Britain, €10,000 in Turkey and only €4,725 in Poland.亚洲和非洲国家中产阶级患者数量不断增加，如果他们无法在国内得到所需的治疗，就会愿意花钱出国解决问题。而且相同的治疗在不同国家价格差异巨大，也让消费者有动力出国治疗。例如在德国，心脏瓣膜置换费用平均为3万欧元（3.5万美元），而邻国奥地利仅需1.5万欧元，质量无甚差别。英国的髋关节手术要1.2万欧元，土耳其要1万欧元，而波兰只需4725欧元。
2018年08月31日 23点08分
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