Band 6+: The bar chart below shows current health expenditure totals as percentages of GDP* for various European countries for the years 2002, 2007 and 2012. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

The bar chart provides data regarding percentage of money spent on healthcare in 12 European countries over a 10 year duration.

Overall, Switzerland spent the highest percentage of GDP on healthcare during the whole period while, Estonia spent the lowest percentage on health services. In all countries, the portion of money spent did not show dramatic changes throughout the 10 year duration.

The data illustrates that Switzerland spent the largest percentage of GDP, around 11%, which remained stable in the 10 year period. The second highest percentage, 10%, was spent by Belgium in all the years compared.

This was followed by, Denmark, France, Netherlands, and Norway which spent around 8 to 10% all over the 10 year period with the exception of a surge in expenditures by France in 2007 at 11% of GDP spent on healthcare.

On the contrary, Estonia spent the lowest percentage of its GDP on healthcare at just around 3%. . Followed by Lithuania which spent around 5 to 8% of its GDP on healthcare. On the other hand, Spain, Slovenia, Luxembourg and Poland were in the middle with 6 to 9% of GDP spent on health services.