Dying for affordable healthcare — the uninsured speak

Ed Pilkington travels to Quindaro, Kansas, to see how the poorest survive without healthcare provision

NHS staff sickness rates 1.5 times private sector level, health report finds

• More than 45,000 NHS workers a day report sick• Staff have higher levels of obesity and poor mental health

Bee Lavender: Growing up sick in the US, and being treated by a humane NHS here, has shown me that Britain's system is far better

Zack Cooper: The US and UK should stop focusing on what's wrong with each other's healthcare and work out what they can teach each other

Michele Hanson: How dare the Republicans bad-mouth our free healthcare system? If I'd been born in the US, I'd probably be dead by now

Sue Blackmore: If my hand was deformed by negligence, like the Corby children, I would want an apology – we must make sorry easier to say

Nicholas Lezard: With sales of condoms down, and of pregnancy supplements up, will the birth rate soar despite the dire financial situation?

Leo Hickman: Why the mock outrage over the nutritional value of organic food? There are a host of more compelling reasons to eat it

Drinks such as frappuccinos found by World Cancer Research Fund to have as many calories as an evening meal

Health lobby group World Action on Salt and Health, which completed research, accuse manufacturers of 'hypocrisy'