• Premiums for health insurance may be deductible from income taxes.time for a short break image by Keith Frith from Fotolia.com
  
  Taxpayers are permitted to deduct from their income certain costs paid for medical and dental expenses, according to the Internal Revenue Service's Tax Topic 502, Medical and Dental Expenses. Qualifying medical expenses include the amount the taxpayer contributed toward the premiums for health care and qualifying long-term care insurance policies. Premiums paid for life insurance or income replacement policies are not deductible.
  
  

Limitations

• Taxpayers must elect to itemize their deductions in order to deduct medical and dental expenses, including the cost of health insurance. Taxpayers who choose to take the standard deduction may not claim any deduction for the cost of health insurance. Taxpayers may only deduct the amount they actually paid toward the health insurance premium. They may not deduct the amount of any employer contribution toward the premium. A taxpayer may include health insurance premiums paid for coverage of himself, his spouse and dependents. The total amount paid toward health insurance must be added to all other qualifying medical and dental expenses to determine the amount that may be deducted. Only the total amount of all medical and dental expenses in excess of 7.5 percent of the taxpayer's adjusted gross income is deductible. All medical and dental expenses are reported on Line 1 of IRS Form 1040, Schedule A.
  
  

Self-Employed

• Taxpayers who were self-employed may be qualified to adjust their income by the amount of their health care premiums without itemizing their deductions if they meet certain requirements, according to IRS Publication 402, Medical and Dental Expenses. The taxpayer may deduct amounts paid for health insurance premiums, up to specified limits, for herself, her spouse and dependents during any month when she was not qualified to be covered by a health insurance program that was offered by her employer or her spouse's employer. Self-employed taxpayers must report their deductions for health insurance premiums on IRS Form 1040, Line 29.
  
  

Considerations

• Individual taxpayers may not deduct any amount paid for health insurance by their employers. Some companies offer their employees the option of paying their portion of company-subsidized health insurance with pretax dollars. Taxpayers are not permitted to include health insurance premiums paid with pretax dollars in their health and dental expenses. Not all health insurance policies may be deductible. Only policies that provide coverage for medical services may be deducted, including policies that cover hospitalization, surgery, prescription drugs, dental care, physician care and medical devices. Insurance policies that combine health care benefits with other benefits are deductible based upon the percentage of the policy that covers health care expenses.