When Lyndon B. Johnson became president in 1963, he wanted the United States to become a “Great Society” with voting rights for all and an end to discrimination and poverty.

“With your courage and with your compassion and desire, we will build a Great Society,” Johnson told Ohio University students when he kicked off the effort. “A society where no child will go unfed, and no youngster will go unschooled.”

Central to Johnson’s vision for a Great Society was health care. The two health programs he started, Medicare and Medicaid, do not offer the universal coverage many nations provide, but they did advance health care as a right and not just a privilege for the wealthy. 

Medicare and Medicaid now offer peace of mind to 150 million older, lower-income and disabled Americans. Together, they provide healthcare to the largest single pool of people in the United States. 

Yet private insurance companies have been chipping away at public health care for years to boost their profits. If Donald Trump becomes president, they’ll take it all away. When they do, every one of us will lose, while massive corporations and their executives win, at our expense. 

Medicare was run by the federal government for decades. Yet in 1997, Republicans in Congress invited private insurers to manage these plans. Private companies now run more than half of all Medicare policies. Under Project 2025, the conservative blueprint for Trump’s next administration, private insurance will become the default option for new enrollments, ultimately leading to complete privatization.

These private plans, now called “Medicare Advantage,” offer patients less while charging taxpayers more. Private companies like UnitedHealth, the largest provider of Medicare Advantage, love to get guaranteed income from our tax dollars, while they delay and deny claims to boost their profits. If Trump’s plan takes effect, the number of Medicare Advantage policies UnitedHealth controls is expected to reach 15.6 million.

One out of every three Medicare Advantage policyholders is denied care by private insurers like United every year. Under Trump’s plan, UnitedHealth alone would deny care to as many as 5.2 million people. This ability to deny care is what makes Medicare Advantage plans far more profitable to private insurers than any other plans they offer. 

Privatized Medicare sounds more like a “Disadvantage” to me. It’s a raw deal for everyone who, like me, believes the United States can do better. I believe that as a nation, we have the courage, compassion, desire and resources to offer health care for all, not just the wealthy few. We can start by electing a president who, unlike Trump, will not destroy Medicare, but will defend and improve it. 

Vice President Kamala Harris just announced her plan to expand Medicare coverage to help cover the costs of home health care for seniors. This will help the one in every four Americans who cares for an older member of their household. 

Harris will pay for her plan by expanding Medicare’s ability to negotiate with drug manufacturers to lower costs. Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act passed by President Biden, the federal government now has the power to demand lower drug prices and get them. 

The Biden and Harris administration has already successfully lowered the prices of drugs for diabetes and heart disease by as much as 79 percent, and capped the price of insulin at $35. These changes will save taxpayers $6 billion a year, and you and I will save $1.5 billion every year in our out-of-pocket costs.  As president, Harris will negotiate even more cost savings, which will translate into more care for families like ours.

To me, this is the President Harris Advantage. Trump spent his four years as president trying to take health coverage away from 45 million people by destroying the Affordable Care Act. His only plan for health care in a second term is to privatize. 

Vice President Harris, in contrast, has an actual track record of working to improve our health, and has pledged to do even more if she is elected. This is why she has my vote.