You can claim eligible medical expenses as long as you were not reimbursed for them. If your employer or a private insurance or drug plan paid a percentage of the expenses, you can claim the remaining portion that you paid.
Here are some of the more common medical expenses you can claim:
- Payments to a medical professional or to a public or licensed private hospital.
- Prescription medicines and drugs.
- Dental services (including x-rays, fillings, extractions, oral surgery, dentures, and tooth straightening).
- Prescription eyeglasses, prescription contact lenses, laser eye surgery.
- Ambulance charges to or from hospital.
- Lab tests.
- Reasonable travel expenses (such as meals and accommodation), if medical treatment was not available locally.
You cannot claim the following as medical expenses:
- Payments to a provincial health insurance plan (e.g., Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP), BC Medical Services Plan (MSP), etc.).
- Birth control devices (non-prescription).
- Diet programs, food, and scales for weighing food.
- Funeral expenses.
- Maternity clothes.
- Memberships to health clubs, gyms, and fitness centres.
- Non-prescription creams and lotions.
- Toothpaste.
- Wigs (unless custom-made for victims of abnormal hair loss due to disease or medical treatment).