This is the first year of my forced retirement due to disability. My wife is employed part-time, without benefits. We are 61. I get Medicare January 2013 due to my disability status. Anyway, we both currently purchase individual Blue Cross policies. We have the monthly premiums we each pay, which total around $15K for 2011. We each have a $2.5K deductible, plus a $2.4 co-insurance. I've paid the total deductible for my policy, plus I've also paid the total co-insurance. My wife has paid less than all of each for her policy. I have about $2K of co-pays for prescription drugs, along with some co-pays for office visits. The rest has been covered by the insurance policy. When I deduct the medical expenses on 2011 return, can I just lump everything together for myself, and the separately for her. The IRS form has various line items, but my bills don't follow that type of format, plus I rarely know exactly what a charge covers, as only the insurance compnany gets the actual itemized bill. For me, can I simply add up the premuims, deductibles paid by myself, co-insurance paid by myself, co-pays paid by myself, and come up with a final lump sum number to put on the tax return? Is this ok? Thanks.

Yes, you can lump everything together. Unless you are filing as Married Filing Separately you don't even have to separate your expenses from your wife's. FWIW, I ususally lump my clients' medical expenses into three categories: insurance, doctors (includes anything related to a doctor's visit), and prescriptions.

Ira

Ira