Claiming Medical Expenses: Free Healthcare?

Geoff Currier

Free Health Care? Did you know that Canadians spend on average more than $1,000 on medical expenses each year? It’s estimated that government programs, via our taxes, cover about 72% of medical expenses, which means that we pay for the rest. Your clients may be over-paying on their taxes because they don’t know about medical expense deductions. 

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For these reasons, one of the most important proactive questions you can ask before tax filing season is “How’s your family’s health?” Your clients may be out of pocket for medical expenses, which can be claimed on their tax returns. Consider this lengthy list of eligible expenses.

What’s Eligible?: Some may be obvious to you but perhaps not to your clients, especially if their health condition has changed significantly. Ambulance services, braille devices, prescription drugs, hearing aids and dental services are among the most obvious and common expenses. 

Do your clients have private medical insurance that they pay for? If so, they may not know that those premiums are a deductible expense. If you have a client who has recently retired, ask if they are now purchasing their own health insurance.

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/14-28-0001/2025001/article/00003-eng.htm

Remind Them: Also, and this is critical, be certain to remind them to retain all receipts for any medical expenses. Health plans don’t cover everything and your client may have to pay for certain items or services. Remind them that receipts are a safeguard against being audited.

Do They Know What’s Eligible? Provincial health plans will cover some items but not others. In the case of walking aids, like walkers or canes, your client can deduct those expenses if they are not covered by their provincial plan. This is also true of some unexpected items such as Vitamin B12, orthopaedic shoes, boots or inserts, insulin pens and power operated chairs. All of these items require a prescription. Keeping prescriptions on file is a part of the record keeping that is your client’s responsibility. Gentle reminders will be helpful.

Having conversations with your clients matters because they may have incurred medical expenses that they would not have thought are eligible. Here’s one example: suppose your client has had to replace a furnace with an electric or sealed combustion furnace that is neither of those because of a respiratory ailment. This is an allowable medical expense. In this case aprescription is needed. 

Some more obscure items: clients’ egg and sperm freezing and storage, some gluten free foodproducts for those with celiac disease (a prescription is needed in these cases and, as always,receipts). Did your client travel outside the country for a medical procedure? If their provincial plan did not cover the cost, those expenses are eligible. Does your client have a service animal? Again, this is an allowable expense. 

Some items that might seem logical to be included on the list are not, such are blood pressure monitors. You will need to keep up to date on the list of eligible items and services. For example, Massage therapy is a category unto itself. The rules governing if massage therapy is an allowable medical expense will vary depending on which province or territory your client lives. 

Private tutoring is generally not a tax-deductible expense. However, under certain conditions, it may be claimed as an allowable medical expense. Among those conditions, the client or dependent must have a learning disability or impairment. There are also other criteria which must be met such as needing a medical certification that the treatment is necessary. Speech therapy is generally considered an allowable medical expense.

Some of your clients may have accessed rehab or detox treatment, some or all of whose costs may not have been covered. These services can be expensive. Those costs are eligible undercertain conditions as well. Your client will require the paperwork from a medical practitioner or the head of a facility that the treatment was needed. 

The Bottom Line: If your client is struggling with a health issue, it’s possible they are feeling financial strain as well. Reminding them about the need for proper documentation will go a long way towards saving your client from overpaying their taxes and avoiding an audit. Receipts, prescriptions and certificates in writing are crucial. If the medical expense is new for your client in the current tax year, you’ll need to file a T22201 form but not if the client has already been approved for the disability tax credit. 

Having a checklist of health questions for your client can help save them money and help them to maintain accurate records for the following tax years.

For the rest of us, the healthy taxpayers, remember there is a cost for public health care, and it’s not inexpensive. That’s a subject for our next article in this series, and one of the reasons why every taxpayer should take advantage of a return on their investment by claiming allowable medical expenses.