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. You should write at least 150 words. * GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is the total value of goods that are made and services that are provided in a country.

The provided bar chart delineates the total percentage of spending on healthcare by twelve European states in 2002,2007, and 2012 utilizing the Gross Domestic Product measure.

Overall, Switzerland demonstrated the highest proportion over the period, while in contrast, the lowest belonged to Estonia.

To begin with, as it was mentioned before, the Swiss dominated the whole period, illustrating a stable index of approximately 11%. Following this, Belgium, Spain, and Estonia showed the same pattern of regularity throughout the time, 10%, 8% and about 3% respectively. In addition, four countries were stable in the first two years and faced a slight increase in 2012. Precisely, in Norway and Denmark (9% in 02′, 07′ and 10% in 2012), in Slovenia, the number grew from 8% to 9, in Poland (from 6 to 7 percent), and in Lithuania, it rose from 5 to 6 percent. On the contrary, there was an insignificant decrease in the Netherlands (10% in 2002 and 8% in 2012) and Luxembourg’s (8% to 7%) ranks. Finally, only France illustrated noticeable fluctuations over time.