Demand rises for publicly funded burials

[GOBUCKS]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-08-19-funerals_N.htm

Demand rises for publicly funded burials

By Donna Leinwand, USA TODAY
The rough economy is inflicting hardship on people even in death.
Coroners and funeral directors in several cities say the number of people seeking government-paid funerals, cremations and burials is spiking. Most counties and states will use public money to cremate or bury people who are too poor to pay for private services.

"People just aren't in a position to pay $7,000 for a private funeral and burial," says Lt. David Smith of the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office, where the number of people seeking county burial has nearly doubled since last year.

The percentage of people in poverty in the USA is climbing, says Gregory Acs, a senior fellow at The Urban Institute. When the recession started at the end of 2007, about 12.5% of the U.S. population was considered impoverished, up from 11.7% in 2001, he says.

Among the counties noting a surge in requests for indigent burials:

• The Los Angeles County Coroner's Office handled 205 indigent deaths in the last six months of 2007. This year, from Jan. 1 to June 30, the office handled 404 indigent deaths — a 97% increase. "It has put a major financial strain on this department," Smith says. "I need to come up with $12,000 a month in a budget that's locked up tight as a drum."

Don't worry. If they deny medical care to Granny, she may still qualify for an
O-grave under the Kenyan's single-digger plan.
 

[Chris_]

7 grand...what a rip off.  My family better not pay that much for my funeral (I want my $$ to go to my kids, thank you).  Just throw me on the firepit, baby.  Or bury me in a refrigerator box, who cares.  Have a memorial at the park, use paper plates.  I'm dead for Pete's sake!

Is it a law that you have to have an expensive funeral and burial?  Couldn't you, say, have a cremation and gather everyone in your living room for a memorial service?  

And not to sound callous (though I know I can be), if someone is indigent, with no family, it should matter even less how they get sent off.

[Chris]

Shovel ready!

[Eupher]

7 grand...what a rip off.  My family better not pay that much for my funeral (I want my $$ to go to my kids, thank you).  Just throw me on the firepit, baby.  Or bury me in a refrigerator box, who cares.  Have a memorial at the park, use paper plates.  I'm dead for Pete's sake!

Is it a law that you have to have an expensive funeral and burial?  Couldn't you, say, have a cremation and gather everyone in your living room for a memorial service?  

And not to sound callous (though I know I can be), if someone is indigent, with no family, it should matter even less how they get sent off.

Hmmm, reminds me of an article I read several months ago by the son of a man who had passed on. To honor the father's wishes, i.e., not spend a pile of $$ to get planted, the son wrote how he accomplished that. First of all, he built the coffin himself out of regular lumber. That particular state did not require embalming (apparently some do, some don't) and the deceased preferred little to no ceremony. Viewing of the remains was done at home.

The most difficult part was getting the death certificate signed off. Since there was no funeral director, that part of the process was missing. The officials recording the death apparently had a "WTF?" moment when they realized this was a do-it-yourself funeral. The son eventually got it done, but it was a little tricky.

The whole thing ran something like $1,200 and most of that went for the burial plot and lumber to build the coffin.

The article might've been in National Geographic, but I ain't sure....

[Wineslob]

if someone is indigent, with no family, it should matter even less how they get sent off.

A backhoe, some quick lime, and it's all done. NO PROBLEM.

[Eupher]

A backhoe, some quick lime, and it's all done. NO PROBLEM.

If it's good enough for Mozart, it's good enough for Juan, the illegal lettuce picker.

[thundley4]

Not long ago there was news about bodies remaining unclaimed in Los Angeles, because people couldn't afford to bury them.

What makes a funeral so expensive anyway?

[Chris_]

What makes a funeral so expensive anyway?

Greed, probably.

[Chris_]

What makes a funeral so expensive anyway?

Good old American capitalism........

There are many ways to reduce the cost, however.....with no service, around here a cremation runs about $500, and you can spread the remains wherever you want.  Also, you ban buy a casket directly from some of the discount retailers like Sam's Club in some areas.  If you elect burial, there are municipal cemeteries that will sell you a burial plot for as little as $200.

doc

[JohnnyReb]

Not long ago there was news about bodies remaining unclaimed in Los Angeles, because people couldn't afford to bury them.

What makes a funeral so expensive anyway?

The fancy hearse and limo....What? You might not mind going to your final resting place in a cardboard box in the back of a Studebaker pickup truck but think of your family. The kids would be embarrassed.....

Well, it's seems it's here "From the womb to the tomb" government care.... how soon do they start demanding someone wipe their butts between those points in life?

[Chris]

The fancy hearse and limo....What? You might not mind going to your final resting place in a cardboard box in the back of a Studebaker pickup truck but think of your family. The kids would be embarrassed.....

Well, it's seems it's here "From the womb to the tomb" government care.... how soon do they start demanding someone wipe their butts between those points in life?

One of the local funeral homes has a Chevy C-10 Blazer made out like a hearse.  They have a couple other vehicles, but that is the one that stands out.

[BEG]

My brother's funeral last year cost WELL over $7000 and his funeral was not beyond an average everyday funeral. We didn't have to pay for a plot because my grandparents  had four extra plots that any of us could use. He casket was average as was everything else that goes with having a funeral. If it weren't for my parents you all would have been paying for his funeral because neither he nor his widow (I was going to use a different word to describe her but decided against it) had any money. Although that same widow that had no money when it came time to burry him threatened to have him dug up and moved because she didn't like what we had engraved on his headstone (that my parents paid for as well).

[GOBUCKS]

After living through O-care, we will all probably end up in O-holes.

[Chris_]

Not long ago there was news about bodies remaining unclaimed in Los Angeles, because people couldn't afford to bury them.

What makes a funeral so expensive anyway?

government mandated paperwork.

[Chris_]

After living through O-care, we will all probably end up in O-holes.

I thought O-holes was the term for idiots that voted for him.

[dutch508]

I can't believe no one has said this yet:

SOLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!!!!!

[thundley4]

I can't believe no one has said this yet:

SOyLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!!!!!

[formerlurker]

[vesta111]

Funerals get you by the throat when the death is unexpected.

To be fair to the morticians, they have a few years of training and school, perhaps 3-4 years of medicine. Sometimes they are the first to pick up on foul play---

I have been at at home viewings where the undertaker came in to shave the customer and adjust things if no embalming was used.

   Most states do nor require embalming unless the customer is taken over state lines.

Much work is done to prepare for a viewing, casket set up, flowers arranged chairs, perhaps a kneeling spot, air flow and movement must be mornitored as a closed environment will cause people to faint from stress and lack of fresh air.

Perhaps some crazy family member wants a video shot of the wake, family friends and neighbors.  Somehow the director has to figure out how to do all this.

This is a very emotional time for people, they can put uncle Joe in a lobster pot and see him every 2 days until he is gone.

Have Mom or dad die in their 40's is when they got you.

But no one ever regrets the cost of a funeral    How many people who spend twice that amount on a wedding soon regret that.?

[formerlurker]

But no one ever regrets the cost of a funeral    How many people who spend twice that amount on a wedding soon regret that.?

So true.

[SilverOrchid]

I heard someone say once that they wanted to be creamated and made into an ashtray. I can't remember who said this but I LOL'd.

[Eupher]

   Brilliant!