5 Ways to Reduce Your Healthcare Expenses
Healthcare is expensive, especially as we get older. Fortunately, there are some tricks you can use to cut your healthcare expenses down to a more reasonable size.
Medical expenses are deductible, meaning that you can get a tax break for claiming them on your federal return. However, this tax break comes with a couple of catches. First, you can only claim the medical expense deduction if you itemize, which only makes sense if your itemized deductions are greater than your standard deduction. And second, you have to subtract 10% of your AGI (adjusted gross income) for the year from your medical expenses before you can deduct the rest. So for most people, deducting medical expenses only makes sense if they have a lot of medical expenses.
That's where grouping your expenses comes in. If you can arrange to have a whole bunch of medical expenses in a single year, you can end up with enough expenses that you'll be able to claim the tax break and get some money back. So if you find out you need some expensive medical procedure done, see what else you can schedule for the year. Maybe your spouse has been putting off some heavy-duty dental work, or your child is due for a new pair of eyeglasses. By delaying some expenses and expediting others, you may be able save a great deal of money courtesy of this deduction.
Source: Fool.com
