Medical Expense Definition

• The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) definition of medical expenses is the "costs of diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, and the costs for treatments affecting any part or function of the body." According to the IRS, these costs include the premiums you pay for health insurance, such as Medicare.
  
  

Limitations

• The deduction for medical expenses on Schedule A is limited to expenses that are greater than 7.5 percent of your Adjusted Gross Income (Form 1040, line 38).
  
  

Self-Employed Health Insurance Deduction

• If you are self-employed, you cannot include Medicare premiums as part of the Self-Employed Health Insurance Deduction on IRS Form 1040, according to IRS Publication 535 and the instructions for Form 1040.
  
  

Considerations

• According to the IRS, taxes that any government imposes, such as Medicare taxes, are not insurance premiums. Also, insurance premiums that are not deductible as a medical expense include life insurance, insurance policies that pay for loss of earnings or for loss of life, limb, sight and so forth, and the medical insurance coverage included in auto insurance.