The table illustrates the proportion of expenditure on healthcare in five different nations, namely Japan, Italy, Germany, France, and the USA in 2002.
Overall, it is clear that public spending on healthcare was considerably higher than private spending in all five countries. In addition, France recorded the highest proportion of total healthcare expenditure, while Japan had the lowest.
Looking first at Germany, France, and the USA, France recorded the highest proportion of healthcare expenditure, at 11.4%, followed by Germany and the USA, at 9.3% and 8.6%, respectively. In terms of public spending, the figures for France and Germany were 8.6% and 7%, respectively, both of which were approximately three times as high as the corresponding figures for private spending. By comparison, public spending in the USA was just over twice as high as private spending, at 6% and 2.6%, respectively.
Regarding Japan and Italy, Italy spent more on healthcare than that of Japan, with the former standing at 7.7%, which was 0.5% higher than that of the latter. Although Japan allocated a larger proportion to public healthcare than Italy, at 5.8% compared with 5.3%, its private spending was considerably lower, at just 1.4%, compared with 2.4% in Italy.
