06 Obamacare TV

Excerpt:
More than 3.4 million homeowners are temporarily skipping their mortgage payments because they’ve lost income during the pandemic. Under the CARES Act rescue package passed by Congress, affected homeowners can skip or delay payments for up to a year….
“In the vast majority of cases, what should happen at the end of the CARES Act forbearance period is that homeowners should be given the opportunity to have those missed payments put on the back end of their mortgage,” says Diane Thompson, a former attorney with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
So if you have a 30-year mortgage and skip six months of payments, then you’d get six months of payments tacked onto the back end of that 30-year term.
That means when you get back on your feet financially, you can just return to making your regular monthly mortgage payment — your payment doesn’t go up, and you don’t get socked with a giant bill that you can’t afford.
Thompson, who is now working with the National Consumer Law Center, says Congress should make this the default option that homeowners get automatically.
She says that this would fix the current situation, where the repayment method gets determined months down the road when the homeowner is ready to resume paying. Tacking the payments on the back of the loan is what should happen for most borrowers if the mortgage companies follow the rules, she says. But that leaves a lot of painful uncertainty hanging in the air for people, especially when borrowers in the meantime are being told about possible outcomes that are wildly inappropriate for their situation.

The World Health Organization warned that children across the world will die as the coronavirus pandemic forces some countries to temporarily halt vaccinations for other deadly diseases like polio.
At least 21 countries are reporting vaccine shortages as a result of travel restrictions meant to curb the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a press conference at the agency’s Geneva headquarters. “The tragic reality is children will die as a result.”
Just as immunization has been postponed in some countries, heath-care services for other diseases, like malaria, have been disrupted, Tedros said, noting that the number of malaria cases in sub-Saharan Africa could double. —Berkeley Lovelace Jr.

Excerpt:
Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is expected to lead a $100 million funding round in India’s digital payment behemoth- Paytm, according to a report from India’s The Economic Times.
Paytm provides digital payment services to individuals and merchants and has raised around $3.5 billion to date. Paytm is one of the largest digital payment platforms in India, with backing from investors including SAIF Partners, Softbank, and Alibaba Group.
Paytm became hugely popular after India’s demonetization efforts back in 2016. India was primarily a cash-based economy that had to temporarily transition into a digital-based economy overnight, resulting in a surge of online payment service providers.

Excerpt:
Saudi Arabia has ended the death penalty for crimes committed by minors after effectively abolishing floggings, as the kingdom seeks to blunt criticism over its human rights record.
The death penalty was eliminated for those convicted of crimes committed while they were minors, Human Rights Commission president Awwad Alawwad said in a statement, citing a royal decree.
“Instead, the individual will receive a prison sentence of no longer than 10 years in a juvenile detention facility,” the statement said.

Excerpt:
CVS Health announced Monday that pharmacies will be expanding their coronavirus testing capabilities and will be offering self-swab COVID-19 testing kits, according to a news release.
In addition to the large-scale test sites the company has been operating since March, CVS Health will utilize its expansive community presence to bring testing closer to home while maintaining strict safety standards, company officials said.
“Our industry has been united by the unique role we can play in addressing the pandemic and protecting people’s health,” said Larry J. Merlo, President and CEO of CVS Health. “We all share the same goal, and that’s dramatically increasing the frequency and efficiency of testing so we can slow the spread of the virus and start to responsibly reopen the economy when experts tell us it’s safe.”