I am itemizing my tax return. Which medical expenses can I deduct?
When itemizing your medical expenses, the medical expenses you can deduct include:
For the treatment of a disease:
- Diagnosis
- Curing
- Easing
- Treatment
- Prevention
If one of those applies, you can also include the associated costs for:
- Equipment
- Supplies
- Diagnostic services
The expenses must be primarily to improve or prevent a physical or mental deficiency or illness.
Deductible medical expenses include:
- Acupuncture
- Alcoholism treatment
- Ambulance service
- Annual physicals
- Bandages
- Birth control
- Body scan
- Braces
- Braille books and magazines for the visually impaired
- Breast pumps and supplies
- Chiropractic care
- Christian Science practitioner care
- Contact lenses and the supplies required to maintain them
- Necessary dental treatment (doesn’t include whitening)
- Diagnostic devices (Ex: blood sugar test kit for a diabetic)
- Drug addiction treatment
- Prescribed medications
- Eye doctor
- Eye glasses
- Eye surgery
- Fertility enhancement
- Guide dog or other service animal
- Hearing aids
- Home care
- Insulin
- Insurance premiums
- Lab fees
- Lead-based paint removal (not repainting)
- Certain Medicare A, B, and, D
- Nursing home or services
- Oxygen
- Physical or occupational therapy
- Prosthesis
- Psychiatric care
- Psychologist
- Sex-reassignment surgery and related hormone therapy for the treatment of gender-identity disorder disease
- Sterilization
- Smoking cessation programs except over-the-counter nicotine gums and patches
- Surgery
- Transplants
- Transportation to obtain medical care
- X-rays
Related Resources
Can you claim your college student as a dependent if they go to school full time and earn income? Learn about dependent rules from H&R Block’s experts.
Do you qualify for a North Carolina Extra Credit Grant? Find eligibility requirements and information about amendments that may be needed to receive funds.
Looking for more information about your Utah refund? Find out details on how to check your refund status, who to contact, and more from H&R Block.
If you are a child care provider without a W-2, how do you file your taxes? Learn more from the tax experts at H&R Block.