I've not got the time to get too involved in this, dislike making sweeping statements but have to say that it is a futile exercise to try to compare transborder healthcare costs. Using percentage of GDP figures as a basis is not worthwhile, the figures are skewed by too many other factors. For example a huge infant mortality rate in Alabama has to be seen in the social context of the population, rather than the state government.
Jack M - you mentioned the WHO - sure, integrate insurance costs and taxes, but the REAL figures are buried in the indirect supports. R & D grants subsidize a lot, sweet deals on medication do the same. The pricing structures of medication from country to country are impossible to analize e.g. Ibuprofen is about $10 for a small pack here, whereas it could buy me a container of 250 in the US. If the drugs are generic it is even cheaper.

In Ireland we supposedly have a free / State healthcare system but everyone above the poverty line has the equivalent of Blue Cross / Shield to pay for better service & treatment. Right now, we have people sleeping on trollies (bogies in US lingo?) because we do not have sufficient hospital beds. We are recruiting nurses from the Philippines because we cannot get enough of our own to work for the salaries on offer. We have a MRSA crisis in our hospitals. Do not get ill if you visit here.

I pay a social welfare contribution (taxes) of about 15% of my income up to a ceiling, above which the rate of contribution drops. In France, the rate actually increases above a certain level of income. Employers pay a significantly higher contribution, especially in France, which explains the high rate of unemployment there.
I receive no dental benefits and basically no medical benefits because my income is above the threshold, yet in France I could get everything paid for by the State - from reading glasses to contact lens solution and even there they have the "complementaire" to provide top-up cover.
In Scandinavian countries the contributions by both employer/employee are much higher yet the population there continues to bitch about the high costs and the poor service.

What I can say is that the costs were highest in France when I lived there, I continued to pay them to France when I moved to the US (where I was classified as a French expat!) and they are lower in Ireland.
In many European countries the contributions also include an element for social welfare payments, for sick pay, early retirement, etc. The academics would have to guess at the breakdown of the figures and then base their comparisons on that - a bit like classifying a Cape Gun as a 20 bore because that is the average of the 3 barrells!

Larry B - all politicians talk the talk, they pander to anyone that will give them a vote, that is what got them there. On gun control I have no major issues with a limitation on number / type of weaponry e.g. assault rifles. Maybe that's because we had a civil war here less than 100 years ago and from 1970-to a couple of years ago more or less the same thing "up North."
Km