Republicans in Congress are on the hunt for budgetary savings to ease passage of reconciliation legislation that would extend and enhance the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Unsurprisingly, there is no widespread agreement on the size and nature of these savings. Yet it appears that one particularly irresponsible idea is picking up steam: dramatic cuts to one of Washington’s most successful health insurance programs, Medicare Advantage.

Medicare Advantage enrolls the majority of Medicare beneficiaries and offers an all-in-one, value-based package of services for seniors that moves away from the high-spending, fee-for-service system of traditional Medicare.

If cutting Medicare Advantage seems perverse, consider how the debate has evolved. First, the largest federal entitlements — Social Security and Medicare — are the greatest drivers of future debt and must be reformed, if only for their own survival. But President Trump has declared these programs — and most recently, Medicaid, which has grown by $263 billion since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — off limits for cuts.

Second, Trump specified that the budget savings must come from program “waste,” not “benefit cuts.”

Third, a misguided line of thinking has concluded that there is such waste in Medicare Advantage. In 2024, the Medicare Payment........

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