A new federal ruling means Maryland?s death cartel must deregulate. That?s good news for everyone in the state.
For decades, Marylanders have been forced to pay more for funerals than residents of other states because of state laws prescribing who is allowed to own a funeral home. The most recent estimate, from the Maryland Public Policy Institute, places the state?s funeral regulation cost at $800. That makes Maryland funerals 12 percent more expensive than those in other states ? an especially onerous burden for the many poor residents of Baltimore City.
U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett said Wednesday that Maryland?s ban on corporateownership is “the most blatantly anti-competitive state funeral regulation in the nation” and that it violates the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
When the corporate ownership ban first went into effect about 70 years ago, corporate owners in the state were grandfathered in, making their licenses more valuable. There are currently 58 of them in Maryland, and their licenses have sold for up to $250,000. What the monopoly means for residents is little competition for their business and higher prices.
Left undecided by the court is whether an onerous regulation requiring the owners of all noncorporate funeral homes to be licensed funeral directors. That process requires two years of study and thousands of dollars. It makes no sense. It?s like saying the owner of a real estate firm must be an architect. Of course, funeral homes must employ licensed funeral directors, but there is no reasonable explanation for why the owners must be.
Institute for Justice attorneys who argued the case on behalf of four entrepreneurs plan to ask the court to clarify its decision on that matter.
But state legislators must strike down the regulation when they return in January or sooner, in a special session.
It makes no one safer or healthier. The only thing the regulation does is add financial trauma to emotional strain for loved ones of the dead.
