Maine community rallies to save hospital delivery ward

**Kimberly Adams** (0:01)
More people are swiping credit cards just to get by.
From Marketplace in New York, I'm Kimberly Adams. Credit cards are becoming more accessible. According to new research out today from the Credit Bureau TransUnion, the number of cards issued went up nearly 12 percent in the first quarter from the same time a year ago. One area of growth is subprime borrowers, that is people with less than stellar credit. Marketplace's Stephanie Hughes has more.

**Stephanie Hughes** (0:28)
In years past, lenders were not so keen to give credit cards to people with poor credit histories, says Michelle Ranieri, Vice President of Research and Consulting at TransUnion. So this expansion of credit to them is new.

**Michelle Ranieri** (0:41)
Now we're seeing that even people who have a 550 credit score, which is pretty low, are getting credit cards.

**Stephanie Hughes** (0:50)
Ranieri says lenders are putting relatively low limits on what those subprime borrowers can spend on their new credit cards, say around $500. But that's still useful at a time when prices for everyday things are going up.

**Michelle Ranieri** (1:03)
The costs are just higher. And so that extension of credit, I think, reflects that they're needing this for their cash flow in order to get through the month.

**Aaron Klein** (1:12)
Gas is now over $4 a gallon, so the money has to come from somewhere.

**Stephanie Hughes** (1:17)
Aaron Klein is a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution. He says this need for funds also creates an opportunity for credit card issuers.

**Aaron Klein** (1:27)
They think they can make money. They're charging high interest rates. There are a lot of fees. They think it's profitable.

**Stephanie Hughes** (1:33)
Klein says the fact that subprime borrowers are turning more to credit cards shows the broader economy isn't working that well for lower income people. Life is more expensive and they are not getting paid enough to keep up.
I'm Stephanie Hughes from Marketplace.

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**Kimberly Adams** (3:26)
We've been reporting a lot on the rural health care crisis around the country, and later today a community in rural Maine will likely learn whether its local hospital will close labor and delivery services.
Maine Health, the state's largest health system, has proposed closing the birthing unit at Lincoln Hospital in Demeriscotta in the state's Midcoast region. It would be the fifth rural Maine hospital to stop delivering babies in the last two years and the twelfth in a decade. But the community is fighting hard to keep it open. Marketplace's Samantha Fields reports from Maine.

**Samantha Fields** (4:00)
It only takes Cecilia Ackerman 15 minutes to get to Lincoln Hospital from her house, which is particularly convenient now that she's in her third trimester and has to go every two weeks.

**Cecilia Ackerman** (4:11)
How are you doing?

**Stephanie Hughes** (4:12)
Good.

**Samantha Fields** (4:13)
Ackerman is 39 and she's due to deliver her second baby here in October.

**Cecilia Ackerman** (4:18)
I'm lucky in that I'm still able to choose the hospital.

**Kimberly Adams** (4:22)
Let's get your blood pressure.

**Samantha Fields** (4:24)
She could be one of the last patients who has the choice to deliver here. If Maine Health votes to close labor and delivery, the next closest hospital for her would be at least 40 minutes away.

**Cecilia Ackerman** (4:35)
I definitely would not want to be sitting in route one traffic when there's literally no other alternate route you can take.

**Samantha Fields** (4:43)
In this part of Maine, lots of people live down long peninsulas where there's only one road in or out. Moira Rose Richards lives at the end of the Bristol Peninsula.

**Moira Rose Richards** (4:52)
If Lincoln Hospital's labor and delivery unit closes, I would have to drive an hour south in active labor.