The long-term care (LTC) home crisis in Ontario is a case study in the perils of treating health care as a vehicle for profit. A recent report from the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) on the risks of COVID-related deaths in Ontario residences found that the death rate in private homes was nearly twice as high as was to be found in nonprofit ones.

An overwhelming majority of Ontario’s residences with the highest mortality rates are run by chain companies. The necessity of including long-term care in a truly universal, publicly funded, and accessible health care system has never been clearer.

Those in power have ignored strong criticisms of the living and labor conditions in Canada’s LTC system for decades. But the research is unambiguous: for-profit facilities offer comparatively substandard care. In fact, the Canadian Medical Association recommended a transition away from private facilities as far back as 1984. It should come as no surprise that LTC homes were woefully unprepared to survive the impact of the virus.