Illinois suspends funerals for poor :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Lifestyles

Illinois is one of a handful of states that offers funding for funerals for the indigent

Illinois pays about $15 million a year for about 10,000 funerals for the poor.

That money -- $1,103 that goes to the funeral home, $552 for the cemetery -- can make the difference between a modest service and a burial in a potter's field,….A funeral home makes "maybe 50 bucks" on these burials,  "by the time you pay the transportation to pick up the body, transportation out to the cemetery, the embalming, plus the casket."

payment for funerals held after July 1 will be pushed to the budget year that begins July 1, 2010.

Funeral directors predicted bodies will begin piling up at medical examiner's offices.

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