The presidential campaign ads have finally gone silent, but millions of American seniors are still in the process of making a different kind of choice right now during the Medicare open enrollment period. They are receiving confusing messages about how to manage their health care, while being bombarded with mailers and TV commercials touting low-premium coverage. Meanwhile, almost 2 million have found out that the plan they purchased last year no longer exists.

It shouldn’t be this way. And unfortunately, the wasteful program known as “Medicare Advantage” could expand under a second Trump administration.

For starters, this is not really Medicare per se — it’s an array of hundreds of different plans offered by private for-profit insurance giants. "Advantage" may be the operative word here, especially for the insurers that dominate this business. These companies have turned hundreds of billions of dollars of publicly subsidized overpayments into corporate profits, while devising ways to deny health care to their subscribers.

The problems with Medicare Advantage are well-documented. Unlike actual Medicare, which pays for health care services........

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