Indigent burials, and cost to public, on rise

[AlphaCentauri]

It's a grim but necessary county job that, unlike building roads or jailing bad guys, usually escapes notice: burying the dead when no one else can.

In some Minnesota localities, as in many other places around the country, indigent and county-assisted burials have been on the rise in the last couple of years as economic conditions have worsened.

State law requires counties to pay basic funeral expenses to bury or cremate those who die alone and destitute, or to provide those services for families who can't afford a basic coffin and burial for a relative.

In Hennepin County, there are hundreds of indigent funerals every year.

This year the county will spend about $1.2 million on indigent burials and funerals, about $250,000 more than was budgeted, said Curt Haats, chief financial officer for the county's Human Services and Public Health Department. To close that gap, the county will tap its reserve fund -- the same fund that the County Board recently voted to shore up with $12 million in additional property tax revenues.

http://www.startribune.com/politics/local/80182062.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUF

Funerals should be cover by health insurance

[kickysnana]

1. When we were too poor to pay attention a friend asked about life insurance.

I had had several close calls by then. I stunned her when I told her that I had instructed my kids should I kick the bucket to put me in a Glad bag out at the curb.

At the time I could say there were no dead bodies lying around but that was before Katrina and Galveston (sigh).