New Article in the Conversation: “Non-profit long-term care homes have lost too many residents to COVID-19”

My new article in the Conversation—co-authored with Dan Westlake and Alix Jansen—argues that Ontario’s provincial government should consider replacing all for-profit and nonprofit long-term care with direct government provision. While many people have focused on for-profit long-term care, nonprofits also experienced problems in preventing resident deaths from COVID-19. Our piece in the Conversation presents research from a recently published article in Canadian Public Policy on COVID-19 outcomes in long-term care in Ontario. That article, “Does the Profit Motive Matter? COVID-19 Prevention and Management in Ontario Long-term Care”, uses publicly reported outbreaks data to understand how different long-term care providers handled the pandemic. We find that government outperformed for-profits and nonprofits in preventing COVID-19 deaths.

Here is an excerpt from our piece in the Conversation:

“Our modelling predicts that if all long-term care homes had been government-run, 1,348 residents would have died during the pandemic — less than half of the 3,790 long-term care deaths actually experienced. That same modelling predicts 4,977 deaths if all long-term care was for-profit, and 2,822 if all homes were non-profit. So even though the predicted deaths are highest in for-profit long-term care facilities, non-profits also fare badly compared to government.

These findings suggest a need to consider replacing all contracted long-term care with direct government provision — going further than the Ontario Long-Term Care Commission’s recommendation to eliminate commercial long-term care operators.”