Health Insurance premium deduction while unemployed

[Anonymous]

I have read a lot of the other similar questions but I feel I am missing a full understanding of the answers.

While I was employed I paid a share of the health insurance premium. The share I paid was paid with pre-tax dollars, and resulted in a reduced AGI. From the middle of November I was not employed. I chose to continue my health insurance by electing Cobra. I paid a total of $2,846.68 in Cobra premiums in 2019 while I was unemployed. If I try to claim this as a medical expense it makes no difference due to the 10% rule, for the ten months of the year that I was employed I earned more than $28,466.80.

Can I claim the health insurance premiums as a deduction?

[MarilynG1]

Yes, you can claim your COBRA premiums under Medical Expenses.  However, you are correct about the 10% limitation; you can only deduct the amount that is over 10% of your income. 

So unless you have other deductions as well, like Mortgage Interest, Real Estate Tax, Charitable Donations, that totalled would put you over the Standard Deduction amount ($12,200 for Single), you will not get the benefit of deducting your premiums.

Click the link for more info on Deducting COBRA Premiums.

[Anonymous]

What I do not understand is why when I am employed the cost of health insurance premiums are treated one way and it is easy to deduct (When employed the premium is paid with pre-tax dollars). When you are unemployed the ability to deduct the premium is nigh on impossible. It just does not make sense, I cannot believe this is the way the tax law was meant to be interpreted.