Here’s the deal on medical expenses that Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine) said she struck Friday:The medical-expense deduction would revert back to pre-Affordable Care Act levels for two years, according to Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas). Before certain portions of the health law went into effect in 2013, taxpayers could deduct medical expenses that exceeded 7.5% of income. A companion House tax bill would entirely eliminate the medical-expense deduction, which even at post-ACA levels costs the government about $182 billion over a decade, according to Treasury Department statistics. "With the health expenses, it's surely something we'd like to make fit," House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R., La.) (The more preferable treatment for medical-expense deductions for senior citizens stayed in place until 2016, and AARP has been working to revert to pre-ACA treatment for senior citizens.)

Source: Wall Street Journal December 01, 2017 22:11 UTC