Home Funeral Services in Colorado in Legislative Question

Wednesday, 04 March 2009 22:54

UPDATE 4/3/2009 - Boulder Weekly ran a feature story on the bill, highlighting the sponsor's consultation with industry - but not consumer groups - in drafting this bill. FCA did have a productive conversation with the executive director of the Colorado Funeral Director's Association, which resulted in many areas of agreement on possible amendments (though not total agreement). Here's the letter we sent to Rep. Nancy Todd with suggested amendments. She appears to be refusing to communicate with us; why a lawmaker would ignore pleas from a consumer group while drafting "consumer protection" legislation with the aid of a business lobbying group is a mystery.

3/5/09 --- An anti-consumer bill is working its way through the Colorado legislature, and FCA is fighting back with the help of its Colorado chapter, the Funeral Consumer Society of Colorado. HB 1202 purports to better protect consumers by requiring regulation and standards for funeral businesses, but the bill's sloppy language would outlaw private, family-directed funerals and stifle competition that could bring lower-cost funerals and cremations to Colorado families. The bill looks to be the handiwork of the Colorado Funeral Directors Association, and it has all the hallmarks of a lobbying group using lawmakers to circle the hearses to protect funeral industry profits.

Click here to read FCA's critique of the bill.

FCA Executive Director Joshua Slocum will discuss the bill on KGNU Community Radio on March 5, 2009. Click here to stream the live broadcast at 8:00 a.m. Mountain Time.

Last Updated ( Thursday, 03 September 2009 15:24 )

Comments (5)

With the 2009 and beyond economy, taxes looming on people that may go as high as 50% with combined Federal and State ridiculous nonense, why must people do without food just so a loved one can be buried. Those we bury would not want this for us, nor would they want us to go further into debt for it. They loved us and we love them even if they are no longer with us. The Funeral Directors don't love them or us, they never knew either of us. What they love is our money and what it affords them. My mother had a very simple service, and it cost about $8,000. She had a pre-need arrangement, but even with that we still had to come up with around $2,000. Of course, some people have insurance, but often that money has to go to bills left behind for medical care or credit cards etc... Granted not everyone can be buried in their back yards, I understand ground water contamination etc... Yet, if someone lives in a rural area and has acerage and it wouldn't contaminate ground water in a certain area of that acerage, then why can't they be buried there. Why can't land actually be sold in Colorado with pre-approval of a certain number of souls that can be buried in a certain location of it at time of sale? If it were not sold with this pre-approval then you knew you could not bury there, if it was then you knew it could. Stipulate that the land can never be divided into smaller parcels if that is what you are worried about. Dictate in the sale if a mosoleum can be placed on the land, what size etc.. We're already having too many rights taken from us by the Government already, and too many taxes too I might add!!! Can't we die and be buried the way we want. I mean there is going to be a great rise in deaths in the elderly anyways if the Government goes through with there health care plan. It doesn't take a brain to figure that out. I think you should be able to go to your local court house and get the license to transport your own deceased love ones too, as long as you can present a death certificate. This would be helpful to those in your family that need to be buried on another family members property that was pre-approved. Besides if there is ever a great war, we may be burying our dead wherever we can find the space. We ought to think about that, especially with threats from Iran, North Korea, and even if people don't believe it Russia. American's are waking up and getting to the point they want a say in their own lives, and the government better listen, or those officials will be voted out of office.

cool

As a funeral practitioner in the state of Colorado, who is licensed in two other states, I welcome regulation to weed out the shady dealers. However, the CoFDA has stepped into absurdity with many of these stipulations. Of the criticisms noted, I disagree with the idea that an apprenticeship does not serve consumers. 1 year of supervised practice is a standard for many trades. I served an apprenticeship for my original license, and most other states require this, as well. You do not want to have someone right out of mortuary school, who thinks they know everything, practicing without oversight. When I first started embalming, I needed some help, the schools only teach book knowledge, not practical experience.

On our farm that has been in the family for many years, we have a plot in which a number of us are resting. We hold a simple service right in the farm house the day of death, sing hymns, and tell stories of the life of the departed. And then we bear the simple casket across the field to the family cemetary and lower them down. Over the years, many folks have commented that this is really how a service should be: simple and honest as in the pioneer days, without a parasitical mortician foisting yet another fee upon a grieving family, just so he can buy a bigger Mercedes. Why must predatory capitalism intrude into the last act of a person's life? Leave us alone! Let us bury our dead humanely and simply.

Every American is supposed to have the right to "act in their own behalf" (no profiteering middle man ought to be forced on us).
Every American is supposed to have the right to property, which can not be seized without due process (the deceased belongs to the family, not the FD or the gov't).

Best wishes to FCA of Colorado in your fight for liberty!