The standard mileage rate allowed for operating expenses for a car when you use it for medical reasons is:

• 19 cents per mile from January 1–June 30, and
• 27 cents per mile from July 1–December 31, 2008.

See Transportation under What Medical Expenses Are Includible.

The following medical procedures and devices have been determined to be medical expenses:

• An annual physical examination.
• A full-body electronic scan.
• A pregnancy test kit.

There is a credit for health insurance premiums paid by certain workers who are displaced by foreign trade or who are receiving a pension from the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. For more information, see Health Coverage Tax Credit in chapter 37.

This chapter will help you determine the following.

• What medical expenses are.
• What expenses you can include this year.
• How much of the expenses you can deduct.
• Whose medical expenses you can include.
• What medical expenses are includible.
• How to treat reimbursements.
• How to report the deduction on your tax return.
• How to report impairment-related work expenses.
• How to report health insurance costs if you are self-employed.

Medical expenses are the costs of diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, and the costs for treatments affecting any part or function of the body. They include the costs of equipment, supplies, and diagnostic devices needed for these purposes. They also include dental expenses.

Medical care expenses must be primarily to alleviate or prevent a physical or mental defect or illness. Do not include expenses that are merely beneficial to general health, such as vitamins or a vacation.

Medical expenses include the premiums you pay for insurance that covers the expenses of medical care, and the amounts you pay for transportation to get medical care. Medical expenses also include amounts paid for qualified long-term care services and limited amounts paid for any qualified long-term care insurance contract.