Spent less than $5,596 on medical expenses in 2021/Do COBRA & employee paid health care count as medical expenses?

[dts002]

I am single and am filing a 1040 tax return for 2021.

Is it true that if I had less than $5,596 total in medical expenses, it won't affect my refund?

I have tabulated my medical expenses for 2021 and have found that the total that I have spent on COBRA (which I paid for 4 months), employer health insurance (which I paid for 8 months), and all my other medical expenses totaled $5,000.

So is it true that in my case I won't get a larger refund if I itemize these medical expenses mentioned above?

Also, am I allowed to include the amount that I spent on COBRA and employer-paid health insurance as medical expenses or are these expenses eligible to be deducted somewhere else on my 2021 Tax return?

This is what the Turbo Tax website says:

Did you spend more than $5,596 on medical expenses in 2021?
If you had less than $5,596 total in medical expenses, it won't affect your refund, so we want to make sure you're not doing extra work. Learn more

[DoninGA]

Yes, that amount is 7.5% of your Adjusted Gross Income, so if you do not have more than that there is no reason to enter your medical expenses as an itemized deduction.

Also, the total of all your itemized deductions on Schedule A must be greater than the standard deduction for your filing status to have any tax benefit.

Standard deductions for 2021

Single - $12,550 add $1,700 if age 65 or older
Married Filing Separately - $12,550 add $1,350 if age 65 or older
Married Filing Jointly - $25,100 add $1,350 for each spouse age 65 or older
Head of Household - $18,800 add $1,700 if age 65 or older