Yes, you can claim medical costs for a dependent.
Dependent
You can include medical expenses you paid for your dependent. For you to include these expenses, the person must have been your dependent either at the time the medical services were provided or at the time you paid the expenses. A person generally qualifies as your dependent for purposes of the medical expense deduction if both of the following requirements are met.
You can include medical expenses you paid for an individual that would have been your dependent except that:
He or she received gross income of $4,150 or more in 2018;
He or she filed a joint return for 2018; or
You, or your spouse if filing jointly, could be claimed as a dependent on someone else's 2018 return.
Deductible medical expenses may include but aren't limited to the following:
- Payments of fees to doctors, dentists, surgeons, chiropractors, psychiatrists, psychologists, and nontraditional medical practitioners
- Payments for inpatient hospital care or residential nursing home care, if the availability of medical care is the principal reason for being in the nursing home, including the cost of meals and lodging charged by the hospital or nursing home. If the availability of medical care isn't the principal reason for residence in the nursing home, the deduction is limited to that part of the cost that's for medical care.
- Payments for acupuncture treatments or inpatient treatment at a center for alcohol or drug addiction; or for participation in a smoking-cessation program and for drugs to alleviate nicotine withdrawal that require a prescription
