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Saturday, June 04, 2011

Kansas Legislature to cut funeral fund for poor—"Bring out your dead!"

In their never ending search to cut funding for services of the poor, Kansas Legislators are planning to cut a funeral assistance program for the indigent. According to the Lawrence Journal World, a budget plan before the Legislature, a funeral assistance program for the poor would be eliminated. The cost will be picked up mostly by funeral homes and Mortuaries.
Many funeral directors say they will not refuse to burry the dead of paupers, but they said this new law creates a health risk. Well…Duhhh!
Some funeral directors are warning that some dead people will remain with hospitals or county coroner's offices for lengthy periods until someone takes responsibility to pay for disposition.
No doubt some families without income will not know what to do when a loved one dies. Some indigent people have no relatives and will simply sit around and rot before someone does something about it.
The funeral assistance program costs the state about $480,000 per year. Under the program, a funeral home receives $550 for service and burial of a person who had been receiving state assistance and had few or no assets. This fund has already been reduced over the years from $1,150 per person.
We have to wonder what kind of twisted mind would cut the cost of burying poor people. Will we start finding dead bodies in the streets, gutters and allies? Will some people just bury their loved ones in the back yard?
And what about the diseases caused by such callousness. Maybe I should request, in my will, that my dead body simply be left on the steps of the state capitol for our legislators to step over on their way to work. Let them deal with the stench of death. They don’t seem concerned over it. This is a new low in the Kansas State Legislators contempt and degradation of the poor. But all of us will pay for it one way or the other.


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