Band 6+: The table below shows the information about spending on health in five different countries in 2002. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

The given table illustrates the proportion of spending on health in five countries, namely Japan, Italy, Germany, France, USA in 2002.

Overall, it is clear that France allocated the highest percentage of healthcare, whereas Japan and Italy have spent the least. In addition, public spending was consistently higher than private spending across all five countries.

As for France, it had the highest precentage of total health budget allocation at 11.40%, with public and private spending accounted for 8.60% and 2.80% respectively. Additionally, Germany spent total of 9.30% on healthcare, that is, the state budget spent 7% and privately 2.30%. Therefore, almost a similar trend was seen in the USA, where the total proportion stood at 8.60%. The USA compared 6% and 2.60% to public and private healthcare spending respectively.

In terms of Italy and Japan, those countries had nearly the same percentage on total health funding, made up 7.70% and 7.20% respectively. The state budget also had almost the same percentage, with 5.80% in Japan and 5.30% to Italians. Private spending in Japan was 1% lowest than in Italy, accounted for 2.40%.