Hello again, after another unwanted and unexpected workload-enforced interregnum of absence. What a lot of medals Team GB have got. It's great! There may be hope for the obesity crisis yet if this turns sport and exercise back to something we as a nation do rather than something we just watch (with all the associated pornographic connotations).

The US healthcare system is fragmented and expensive, costing twice as much per capita as the NHS and consuming nearly 16 per cent of a much larger national income.

If you are elderly or disabled, you can get a reasonable package of healthcare benefits from Medicare, which is federally funded. If you have fought for US armed forces, you are eligible for benefits from the Veterans Administration which is also federally funded and an efficient mini-NHS.

A glance at today’s press confirms the tagline currently used by the Economist – ‘we live in economic times’.

An inherent tension in healthcare has re-emerged in a contemporary theme. It relates to the balance between population-level and individual-level perspectives on policymaking.

Tom Smith on three health policy stories today, all adding to a sense of increasing financial pressure.

If the weather isn’t hot this summer, the politics certainly are - with the forecast for it to get warmer yet.

The curse of the TLA (three-letter acronym) is a heavy shadow hanging over the wonderful world of the NHS. In particular, dual definitions can be fun.

Tom Smith on a Smorgasbord of health policy issues debated today.

Evening, all. You will find Tom Smith's latest Health Policy Today now online, reflecting on the policy and political misunderstandings of the book Nudge. No, I haven't read it yet and so am not going to opine about this. (Tom has, though).

Instead, just a quick reflection that in the spirit of the World-Class Commissioning team's alterations to FESC procurements, taking the process down to less than two months, the DH has announced a similar initiative for Local Improvement Finance Trusts (LIFTs) - the PFI of primary care.

Tom Smith on plans to tell parents the weight of their 4 and 10 year old children, and on the continuing mislabelling of 'nudge' theory inspiring British social policy.