Extend the tax deduction for health insurance premiums to individuals.

Equal Tax Treatment Businesses and the self-employed receive a tax deduction for insurance premiums. Let’s extend that to individuals, giving an incentive instead of a deterrent for buying health care.

Scott proposes equal tax treatment by extending insurance premium deductions to individuals.

Health Care — U.S. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina
secondary · campaign_site · model gpt-5.5

IRS guidance says itemizers may deduct medical and dental expenses for themselves, spouses, and dependents only to the extent expenses exceed 7.5% of adjusted gross income; deductible expenses include insurance premiums for medical care, while self-employed taxpayers may be eligible for a separate self-employed health insurance deduction.

Current federal tax treatment is only a limited individual deduction for health insurance premiums through the medical-expense itemized deduction, plus a self-employed deduction. That is partial, not a broad standalone premium deduction for all individuals.

partial later_term

IRS Topic no. 502, Medical and dental expenses
secondary · model gpt-5.5 · confidence 92%

Division EE, Title I, Section 101 amended Internal Revenue Code section 213 by striking 10 percent and inserting 7.5 percent, and applied the change to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2020.

Congress permanently lowered the medical-expense deduction floor to 7.5% of AGI, which helps itemizing individuals deduct qualifying premiums, but it did not create a general individual health-insurance-premium deduction.

partial later_term

Public Law 116-260, Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021
secondary · model gpt-5.5 · confidence 90%

The Senate vote on the motion to concur in the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R. 133 was agreed to; the roll call lists Scott (R-SC), Yea.

Scott voted for the 2020 package that made the 7.5% medical-expense deduction floor permanent, a concrete but only partial action toward the premium-deduction commitment.

partial later_term A for effort

U.S. Senate Roll Call Vote 116th Congress, 2nd Session, Vote 289
secondary · model gpt-5.5 · confidence 93%

Section 11027 temporarily reduced the medical expense deduction floor by applying section 213 with 7.5 percent substituted for 10 percent for taxable years beginning after December 31, 2016, and before January 1, 2019.

The 2017 tax law temporarily expanded the existing individual medical-expense deduction, including qualifying premiums, but only through the itemized deduction and only for expenses over the AGI floor.

partial later_term

Public Law 115-97, Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
secondary · model gpt-5.5 · confidence 88%

The Senate vote on the motion to recede from the Senate amendment to H.R. 1 and concur with further amendment was agreed to; the roll call lists Scott (R-SC), Yea.

Scott voted for the 2017 tax law that temporarily lowered the medical-expense deduction threshold. This is concrete effort but not full delivery of a broad premium deduction for individuals.

partial later_term A for effort

U.S. Senate Roll Call Vote 115th Congress, 1st Session, Vote 323
secondary · model gpt-5.5 · confidence 91%

Section 104 was titled Deduction for qualified health insurance costs of individuals and would have allowed an individual a deduction equal to the amount paid during the taxable year for coverage for the taxpayer, spouse, and dependents under qualified health insurance.

This introduced bill language shows the broader policy target: a direct deduction for individual qualified health insurance costs. The later enacted provisions found were narrower medical-expense deduction changes, so full delivery remains unmet.

never unknown

H.R. 2300, Empowering Patients First Act of 2013, introduced bill text
secondary · model gpt-5.5 · confidence 74%