One topic of discussion around the dinner table at Thanksgiving , especially for families with seniors, will be Medicare 's open enrollment period, which ends Dec. 7.

Many seniors may be leaning toward selecting Medicare Advantage plans, and for good reason. The plans frequently deliver superior care at a lower cost than traditional Medicare.

Medicare Advantage plans are administered by private insurers. Most of them bundle the hospital, outpatient, and prescription drug benefits offered by the separate parts of traditional, government-administered Medicare.

Insurers offering Medicare Advantage plans have to compete for seniors' business. So the vast majority offer additional benefits original Medicare doesn't cover, including eye exams, hearing aids, dental services, and fitness and meal benefits. And they deliver those benefits at a fraction of the cost enrollees would pay under traditional Medicare.

The typical Medicare Advantage beneficiary spends nearly $2,000 less on premiums and out-of-pocket costs than beneficiaries enrolled in traditional Medicare. Even after accounting for socioeconomic status and other beneficiary-specific factors, patients with Medicare Advantage spend 12% less on their healthcare than those with Medicare.

That may be because Medicare Advantage plans appear to keep their enrollees healthier. A Harvard Medical School study found that patients enrolled in Medicare Advantage have nearly 24% fewer preventable hospitalizations and 70% fewer readmissions compared to their counterparts with traditional Medicare.

Medicare Advantage isn't just a good deal for patients. It's a great deal for taxpayers, too.

Critics of the privately administered plans point out that the government pays about $320 more annually for a senior enrolled in Medicare Advantage than it would if that person had traditional Medicare. But compare that with the $2,566 per day it costs taxpayers, on average, each time a traditional Medicare beneficiary experiences a hospitalization. It's plausible that many of those hospitalizations would not have happened if the beneficiary had been enrolled in Medicare Advantage.

Medicare Advantage harnesses the power of competition to lower costs and deliver better health outcomes for patients. That's something for which we can all be thankful.

Sally C. Pipes is president, CEO, and Thomas W. Smith fellow in healthcare policy at the Pacific Research Institute. Her latest book is  False Premise, False Promise: The Disastrous Reality of Medicare for All  (Encounter 2020). Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @sallypipes .