topic Re: Can I take the ACA premiums paid medical expense deduction if I pay for my insurance, but am ... in Self employed

Can I take the ACA premiums paid medical expense deduction if I pay for my insurance, but am not self employed?

LGW2 — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 07:47:18 GMT

This discussion thread is about self employed people and ACA premiums, but I am unemployed (and have been for the whole 2023) so does the same advice apply to me? Can someone tell me if I am eligible to take this ACA medical premium paid deduction and do I have to manually enter it? Or, is this automatically done via the 1095 A (and corresponding form 8962)? I pay for my ACA premiums because I make too much passive income to qualify for Medicaid. In the TurboTax Premier version (non business, I bought the software CD), under the "Additional Medical Premiums" question, on-screen, TT instructs NOT to include the ACA premiums paid among a list of other things not to include. This doesn't make sense to me. The money I have/make, I pay taxes on it and I pay for this insurance out of pocket and since I'm not employed, there is no employer paying this for me. I did enter in the 1095 A form information into TT, but I don't see any of the premiums I paid be automatically included under Medical and Dental Expenses in Schedule A. Maybe I've been struggling with TT for too long and I have missed something or this is a TT error (on screen instructions are incorrect, software doesn't automatically add in the premiums to Medical Expenses) . BTW, I am itemizing and it makes sense to itemize over electing the Standard Deduction. Also, I only got a $12/mo ACA advanced credit (because I was off a bit on estimating my income for the year), but had to pay it back because I made too much and didn't qualify for the advanced credit. Your help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Re: Can I take the ACA premiums paid medical expense deduction if I pay for my insurance, but am ...

DavidD66 — Mon, 15 Apr 2024 03:01:49 GMT

You can deduct your ACA premiums (net of any credit/subsidy you received) as a medical expense on Schedule A. That is a completely different deduction than the self-employed deduction for health insurance. If the amount is not transferring automatically then enter the total net amount you paid for medical insurance as an itemized deduction.

Re: Can I take the ACA premiums paid medical expense deduction if I pay for my insurance, but am not self employed?

Bsch4477 — Mon, 15 Apr 2024 03:08:38 GMT

Deduct premiums you paid as an itemized medical expense on Schedule A. You can only deduct an amount of total medical expenses greater than 7.5 percent of your AGI.

Re: Can I take the ACA premiums paid medical expense deduction if I pay for my insurance, but am ...

LGW2 — Mon, 15 Apr 2024 03:30:49 GMT

Thank you for the succinct explanation! I now need to amend my 2022 taxes since I didn't take the ACA premium paid deduction last year for the same reason.