Australia’s health care system is provided by both private and government institutions. Medicare is the publicly funded universal health care system in Australia and was instituted in 1984. Whereas in 1978 Italy’s government established the SSN (servizio sanitario nazionale) which is the Italian version of a national health service. Australia’s Medicare is funded partly by a 2% levy (with exceptions for low income earners), an additional levy of 1% is imposed on high income earners without private health insurance. Whereas Italy’s SSN health care spending is accountable for 9.2% of GDP in 2012 of this about 77% is public. Italy is ranked the 2nd best healthcare system in the world after France. Italy also has the 11th highest life expectancy in the world of 79.48 on average; whereas Australia is ranked 32 in the world health care wise and 8th life expectancy wise and have an average of 79.7 in comparison to Italy.
