You can claim medical expenses on your taxes, but only the portion of your unreimbursed medical and dental costs that exceeds 7.5% of your adjusted gross income (AGI), and only if you itemize deductions on Schedule A instead of taking the standard deduction.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 213 – Medical, Dental, Etc., Expenses On a $60,000 AGI, the first $4,500 in medical costs does nothing for you; only what you spend above that line reduces taxable income. Self-employed people have a separate, more generous path described near the end of this article.
The Two Hurdles You Have to Clear
The 7.5% floor is the first hurdle. Add up every unreimbursed medical dollar you paid during the year, multiply your AGI by 0.075, and subtract. Whatever is left is your potentially deductible amount. If your expenses fall short of the floor, you deduct nothing.
The second hurdle is itemizing. The medical deduction lives on Schedule A, so it only helps you if your total itemized deductions beat the standard deduction. For 2026, the standard deduction is $16,100 for single filers, $32,200 for married couples filing jointly, and $24,150 for heads of household.2Internal Revenue Service. IRS Releases Tax Inflation Adjustments for Tax Year 2026
Here is how both hurdles work together. Say you file single with a $70,000 AGI. Your 7.5% floor is $5,250. You paid $9,000 in unreimbursed medical bills, so $3,750 clears the floor. But if your other itemizable deductions (state and local taxes, mortgage interest, charitable gifts) only add up to $8,000, your itemized total is $11,750. That is less than the $16,100 standard deduction, so you take the standard deduction and the medical expenses give you nothing. Both math checks have to work.
What Counts as a Medical Expense
The IRS defines medical care as anything paid for the diagnosis, treatment, cure, mitigation, or prevention of disease, or that affects the structure or function of the body. That covers fees paid to doctors, surgeons, dentists, chiropractors, psychiatrists, and other licensed providers, plus hospital stays, lab work, X-rays, and diagnostic testing.3Internal Revenue Service. Publication 502 (2025), Medical and Dental Expenses
Prescription medications and insulin are deductible. Over-the-counter drugs are not, unless a doctor specifically prescribes them. So the ibuprofen you buy for a diagnosed condition does not count without a prescription behind it.
Medical equipment and aids qualify too: eyeglasses, contact lenses, hearing aids (with batteries and repairs), and the cost of buying, training, and maintaining a guide dog or service animal.
Long-Term Care Insurance Premiums
Premiums for qualified long-term care insurance are deductible, but the IRS caps the amount by your age at year-end. For 2026:
- Age 40 or younger: $500
- Age 41 to 50: $930
- Age 51 to 60: $1,860
- Age 61 to 70: $4,960
- Age 71 or older: $6,200
Anything paid above those caps is not deductible. The caps apply per person, so a married couple where both spouses are 65 could include up to $9,920 in long-term care premiums.
What Does Not Qualify
Some expenses feel medical but the IRS does not treat them that way:
- Cosmetic surgery aimed at appearance rather than treating a condition. The exception is cosmetic surgery to correct a deformity from a congenital abnormality, an accident or trauma, or a disfiguring disease, such as breast reconstruction after a mastectomy.
- Gym memberships and health club dues, even if a doctor recommends exercise.
- Vitamins and supplements taken for general health. The narrow exception is when a medical practitioner prescribes them to treat a specific diagnosed condition.
- Over-the-counter drugs without a prescription. Insulin is the one exception and is always deductible.
Travel, Lodging, and Home Modifications
Transportation to and from medical care is deductible. You can use actual costs for gas, tolls, and parking, or the IRS standard medical mileage rate of 20.5 cents per mile for 2026.4IRS.gov. 2026 Standard Mileage Rates Bus fare, taxi fare, and ambulance costs also count. The trip’s primary purpose has to be medical.
Lodging while away from home for medical treatment is deductible up to $50 per night per person, so a parent traveling with a sick child can include up to $100 per night. The lodging must be primarily for care at a licensed hospital or equivalent facility, can’t be lavish, and can’t fold in a real vacation element. Meals during the trip are not deductible.
Home improvements made for medical reasons work on a value-adjustment rule. Subtract any increase in your home’s value from the cost of the improvement; the remainder is your medical expense. Spend $10,000 on an elevator that raises your home’s value by $4,000 and you can include $6,000. Many disability-related modifications, such as entrance ramps, widened doorways, grab bars, and lowered countertops, typically do not raise a home’s value at all, so the full cost qualifies.
Whose Expenses You Can Include
You can deduct qualifying expenses you paid for yourself, your spouse, and anyone who qualifies as your dependent. A dependent for this purpose has to meet a relationship test (a relative, or someone who lived with you all year as a household member) and a support test (you provided more than half their financial support for the year).5Internal Revenue Service. Publication 501 (2025), Dependents, Standard Deduction, and Filing Information This is how people commonly deduct bills paid for elderly parents.
Divorced or separated parents get special treatment. The IRS treats a child as a dependent of both parents for medical expense purposes. Either parent can deduct medical costs they actually paid for the child, as long as the child lived with one or both parents for more than half the year and got more than half their support from the parents combined. It does not matter which parent claims the child as a dependent on their return.
When the Expense Counts
Medical expenses are deductible in the year you pay them, not the year you got the care or received the bill. Surgery in December 2025 that you pay for in February 2026 belongs on the 2026 return.
Credit card charges follow a different rule that works in your favor: the deduction lands in the year you charge the expense, not the year you pay off the balance. Charge a $5,000 dental bill on December 28 and pay the statement in January, and the deduction goes on this year’s return. That timing flexibility helps if you are close to the 7.5% threshold and want to bunch expenses into a single tax year.
Reimbursements, HSAs, and FSAs
Only unreimbursed expenses count. Subtract any amounts paid by insurance, covered by tax-free Health Savings Account (HSA) distributions, reimbursed by a Flexible Spending Account (FSA), or covered by a Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA). You already received a tax benefit on those dollars, so you cannot deduct them a second time on Schedule A.
If you deducted a medical expense one year and then received an insurance reimbursement for it later, you generally report the reimbursement as income in the later year, but only up to the amount that actually reduced your tax the first time. If the earlier deduction did not save you any tax, the later reimbursement is not taxable.
If You Are Self-Employed
Self-employed filers have a better path that skips both hurdles above. Under IRC Section 162(l), you can deduct health insurance premiums (medical, dental, vision, and qualified long-term care) directly on Schedule 1 as an above-the-line deduction.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 162 – Trade or Business Expenses No itemizing, no 7.5% floor. The deduction reduces your AGI itself.
To qualify, you need net self-employment income from a Schedule C or Schedule F business, or you must be a partner or a more-than-2% S corporation shareholder. The deduction cannot exceed your net self-employment earnings, and it does not apply for any month you were eligible for a subsidized employer health plan, including through a spouse’s employer.7Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 7206 (2025) Any premium you deduct this way cannot also appear in your Schedule A medical expenses.
Filing and Records
If itemizing makes sense, report the medical total on Schedule A (Form 1040).8Internal Revenue Service. About Schedule A (Form 1040), Itemized Deductions The form walks through the calculation: enter your total unreimbursed medical expenses, multiply your AGI by 0.075, and subtract. The remainder is your deductible amount.9Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Schedule A (Form 1040) (2025) If the floor is larger than your total expenses, the deduction is zero.
Keep every receipt, explanation of benefits, and provider statement backing what you claimed. Each record should show the date of service, the provider’s name, and what you paid out of pocket. The IRS asks you to retain these records for at least three years from the date you file.10Internal Revenue Service. How Long Should I Keep Records? If an audit finds you cannot document a deduction, you face a 20% accuracy-related penalty on the resulting underpayment, plus the extra tax and interest.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6662 – Imposition of Accuracy-Related Penalty on Underpayments An organized folder of receipts is cheap protection.