a) why is it that every other industrialized nation on Earth manages to deliver health care to a larger percentage of its population at a lower cost?
First off, the US population is only surpassed in population by China and India, so obviously the budget is always going to be a higher cost per percentage of population.
Healthcare does not have a one track cost. The best healthcare in the world exists in the United States, being pretty much the medical capital of the world. That means the most expensive surgeries, the highest costs for hospital care, and the largest selection of drugs at huge mark ups set by the corporations that produce them,
Relatively over 40% of healthcare costs go to seniors, so old people can stop themselves from croaking for several more years. The other 40% goes into health supply companies. (that's your corporate welfare PPACA) The rest is spread out lightly among the general population and research and development for new antibiotics and stuff.
Even though I totally oppose healthcare spending, your best bet for making it one of the best healthcare systems in the world is setting a significant spending cap on senior citizens. (stop expanding medicare Democrats) and ending corporate welfare in the health industry (never going to happen Democrats)
b) "Governments do not boost the economy. " This is ignorant codswallop......
They do not.
Would be nice to see an argument in support of your position though.