Death isn’t cheap these days.
Critics say regulations of South
Carolina’s funeral industry block competition for those who want to buy an
inexpensive casket. But they likely won’t get a sympathetic ear from a state
lawmaker-funeral director who has successfully pushed funeral-related bills in
recent years.
The nonprofit Funeral Consumers Alliance
of South Carolina (FCASC) wants Gov. Nikki Haley’s regulatory-review task force
to push reforms in an industry where nine of 11 members of the state Board of
Funeral Service are, according to the alliance, industry insiders. Alliance
President Gere Fulton has contended that the board’s makeup creates a “cartel”
against competition.
“South Carolina’s a right-to-work state
unless you want the right to build a casket, and then you have to join the
union (comply with all state rules),” Fulton told The Nerve earlier this week.
A wooden casket can sell for $300. In
comparison, the cost of a metal casket in the Columbia area ranges from $957 to
$11,000, according to a 2012 pricing study of Columbia-area funeral homes
conducted by the FCASC. One Columbia-area funeral home listed a casket for
$32,700, that study revealed.
South Carolina's funeral industry has
its supporters in the state General Assembly. A review by The Nerve of recently
passed laws impacting the funeral industry found that Rep. Bill Sandifer,
R-Oconee and chairman of the House Labor, Commerce and Industry Committee, has
been particularly successful in that area. Sandifer is a licensed funeral
director and embalmer, S.C. Labor, Licensing and Regulation (LLR) records show.
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