Can I Deduct Health Insurance Premiums on My Taxes?

In general, health insurance is tax deductible for self-employed individuals, and it is partially tax deductible for people who aren’t self-employed but buy their own health plans. Conversely, you typically cannot write off health insurance premiums on your taxes if you receive health coverage through your employer.

For everything you need to know about health insurance and taxes — such as when you are eligible for a health insurance tax deduction and whether it also applies to plans that cover your dependents — read below.

Key Takeaways You generally can’t deduct employer-sponsored health insurance premiums from your taxes since your employer pays part of the premium and the rest is paid through pre-tax deductions from your paycheck. A self-employed person can deduct any amount of money they spend on health insurance premiums from their taxes as long as their business has a net profit and they aren’t eligible for employer-sponsored health insurance coverage. If you have Medicare, COBRA continuation coverage or an ACA Marketplace plan, premium payments that exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income (AGI) are tax deductible. The amount of long-term care insurance premiums you can deduct from your taxes depends on your age, with older people generally having the option to deduct more of their premiums. Alongside your insurance premiums, you can deduct other medical expenses from your taxes, including hospital bills, prescription drug costs and more.

When Is Health Insurance Tax Deductible?

Whether you can deduct your health insurance premiums from your taxes depends on the type of coverage you have and the extent to which you pay for that coverage yourself. Check out the following sections for overviews of the types of health insurance premiums that are tax deductible.

Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance

Employers are allowed to write off the amount of money they spend on group health insurance that covers their employees.^[1] However, an employee cannot write off their share of the premium payments for their work-based health coverage unless the premiums are reported on their W-2 tax form.^[2]

Employer-sponsored health insurance usually isn’t tax deductible for employees because they don’t directly pay the premiums in most cases.

Instead, employers cover the majority of the premiums, while the employee’s contribution is often deducted from their paycheck on a pre-tax basis. As a result, the money used to pay for their health plan is never part of their gross income and thus can’t be deducted from their taxes.^[2]

Self-Employed Health Insurance

If you are self-employed and operate at a net profit over the course of the year, you may be able to write off the entire amount of money you spend on health, vision and dental insurance premiums on your tax return. However, if at any point you are eligible for health insurance through an employer, including your spouse or dependent’s employer, you can’t take the self-employed health insurance deduction for those months.^[2]

ACA Marketplace Plans

The premiums for an Affordable Care Act (ACA) Health Insurance Marketplace plan count as medical expenses, which you are allowed to write off using itemized deductions if your total expenses exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income (AGI).^[2] For example, if your AGI for the year is $60,000, then you can deduct all of your out-of-pocket medical insurance and health care costs above $4,500.

It’s worth noting that you may qualify for a premium tax credit subsidy that lowers the amount you have to pay for Marketplace health insurance, depending on your income relative to the federal poverty level (FPL).^[3] However, if you use a tax credit to lower your monthly premium payments, you can only write off the percentage of the premiums that you pay out of pocket, rather than the total cost of your health plan.^[2]

COBRA

You should be able to deduct your health insurance premiums from your taxes if you maintain coverage under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA), even though it is technically an extension of your employer-sponsored health insurance. COBRA is a law that allows an eligible employee to stay on their work-based health plan for up to three years after getting fired or quitting their job.^[4]

If you are insured through COBRA, your former employer likely won’t continue to contribute toward your health insurance premium payments.^[4] Since you will likely have to cover 100% of your health insurance costs, you should be able to deduct any COBRA premiums that exceed 7.5% of your AGI as you would for a Marketplace individual or family plan.^[2]

Medicare

You can also include the amount you pay for Medicare among your itemized tax deductions for qualified medical expenses over 7.5% of your AGI. This includes your premiums for Medicare Part B, Medicare Part D and, if you aren’t eligible for free coverage, Medicare Part A.^[2]

Can I Deduct Health Insurance Premiums for Family Members?

You are generally allowed to deduct the premiums you pay for health insurance plans that cover your close relatives, including your spouse, children and other eligible dependents.^[2] That said, you should keep in mind that it may not make sense to take itemized deductions at all unless your medical expenses collectively exceed the standard deduction.

The standard deduction is a blanket amount that most taxpayers can subtract from their taxable income, with the exact amount varying based on your tax filing status. You can’t use both itemized deductions and the standard deduction, so it’s important to determine which deduction strategy can save you the most money. The below table goes over the standard deductions for the 2024 and 2025 tax years, which apply to tax returns filed in 2025 and 2026, respectively.^[5][6]

Tax Filing Status	2024 Standard Deduction	2025 Standard Deduction
Single or married filing separately	$14,600	$15,000
Head of household	$21,900	$22,500
Married filing jointly	$29,200	$30,000

For example, if you are married, your household’s AGI is $100,000 and your family’s combined cost of health insurance and medical care in 2024 was $20,000, then you could subtract $12,500 from your 2025 tax return through itemized deductions. But, since this amount is less than the standard deduction for taxpayers who file jointly with their spouses, you would be better off not deducting these expenses from your taxes.

Is Long-Term Care Tax Deductible?

Long-term care services are also tax deductible, as are long-term care insurance premiums. However, you can only deduct a limited amount of your long-term care insurance premiums, depending on your age. See below for an overview of the maximum long-term care insurance deductions per person for every age range.^[2]

Age	Maximum Deduction
40 or under	$470
41 to 50	$880
51 to 60	$1,760
61 to 70	$4,710
71 or over	$5,880

What Medical Expenses Are Tax Deductible?

In addition to insurance premiums, there are several other medical services you can deduct from your taxes if they collectively exceed 7.5% of your AGI. Some examples of deductible medical expenses include the following:^[2]

Legal abortions	Acupuncture treatments
Ambulance services	Inpatient and outpatient medical care
Birth control supplies	Breast pumps
Braille books	Home and car upgrades for disabled individuals
Glasses or contacts	Crutches and wheelchairs
Dental expenses	Prescription drugs
Guide dogs and other service animals	Hearing aids
Personal protective equipment, like masks and hand sanitizer	Lead-based paint removal
Legal fees related to the approval of medical care	Lodging and transportation related to medical care and/or conferences
Psychiatric care	Artificial limbs and teeth
Bandages	Phone and television upgrades for disabled individuals
Medically necessary weight loss programs	Wigs recommended by mental health professionals

Keep in mind that you can only deduct covered medical services that you pay for out of pocket. As a result, you are not allowed to deduct medical expenses that are covered by your insurance company or that you are otherwise reimbursed for.^[2]

What Medical Expenses Aren’t Tax Deductible?

There are some medical and medical-adjacent expenses that you aren’t allowed to include as itemized deductions on your federal tax return, including the following:^[2]

Child care	Controlled substances or any nonprescription drug besides insulin
Cosmetic surgery	Funeral and burial expenses
Health club or gym membership fees	Maternity clothes
Personal use items	Surrogacy expenses
Swimming or dancing lessons	Veterinarian fees