Weeks after Congress preserved a tax loophole for private equity billionaires and gave private equity firms a separate new tax break, new data show that those firms are hiding their stakes in nursing homes, even as those Wall Street–owned facilities yield higher death rates. Another recent study suggests private equity ownership can also leave patients facing larger health care bills when they see a doctor for a variety of medical issues.

The findings raise a big question: Why do lawmakers give special legislative goodies to these predatory businesses, when their deceitful business practices and price gouging routinely deliver disastrous outcomes for the country’s most vulnerable?

Democrats’ 2010 health care law, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), directed the Health and Human Services Department to institute guidelines to require nursing home ownership disclosure, but more than a decade later, those provisions have yet to be implemented. As a result, potential and current residents are often unaware that their nursing home is owned by a private equity firm. While funds from public programs like Medicare and Medicaid constitute a vast majority of nursing home revenue, the general public has little insight into which firms are profiteering off of their tax dollars while skimping on care.