Tax deduction?
- Thread starter TerryJ2
- Start date
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OTE
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Yes, it includes mental health care and transportation to same. But note that the mileage rate is lower. The deduction is only for co-pays and deductibles or something your insur wouldn't cover...something that you were not reimbursed in any way. So I'm cautioning that if you have a pre-tax employer plan, you can't claim the amount that you got reimbursed from that plan.
The amt of the deduction is the amt that is over a % of your income. That's not 100% of your income!
Here's the IRS publication:
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p502.pdf
The amt of the deduction is the amt that is over a % of your income. That's not 100% of your income!
Here's the IRS publication:
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p502.pdf
There is one other option for those of you who are employers. Our accountant had us set up a special insurance fund benefit specifically for mental health expenses which are not covered by or exceed regular insurance benefits. We have to offer this coverage to all of our employees if they should need it - but at this point we are likely to be the only employees taking advantage of it. So we can pay for our child's hospitalizations, etc. through the fund (making it a pre-tax expense for us).
Our horrible BCBS insurance only pays the first $2,500 per year after a huge deductible AND we are very close to maxing out her "lifetime" benefit.
Has anyone had any luck switching insurances or increasing their benefit while mid-stream with heavy expenses due to mental health issues?
Our horrible BCBS insurance only pays the first $2,500 per year after a huge deductible AND we are very close to maxing out her "lifetime" benefit.
Has anyone had any luck switching insurances or increasing their benefit while mid-stream with heavy expenses due to mental health issues?
TerryJ2
Well-Known Member
My husband changed his ofc (which incl our family) to the new BC/BS plan where you have a huge ded.--in our case, $2,500--and the copays are still 80/20 once you get past that point. Mental health stayed the same. You have to preauthorize 6 visits, then have the dr ofc call and preauthorize more. We've never had to deal with-mental health hospital., just appts., so I can't offer any info on that.
Once you get over the initial heart failure of paying so much up front, it's actually a good system. We're getting checks from the ins. company now. Kind of odd... you'd think that with-all the computer systems in place, they could figure it out the instant a chg goes through, but they take 30 days to process it, decide if you've met the ded., then if you have and you've already pd cash, they send you a check.
Once you get over the initial heart failure of paying so much up front, it's actually a good system. We're getting checks from the ins. company now. Kind of odd... you'd think that with-all the computer systems in place, they could figure it out the instant a chg goes through, but they take 30 days to process it, decide if you've met the ded., then if you have and you've already pd cash, they send you a check.
