Section 80D — health insurance premiums and medical expenditure
Section 80D allows a deduction for health insurance premiums paid for yourself, your family and your parents, with the limit rising where senior citizens are involved. Preventive health check-ups are included within the limits up to ₹5,000. Like the rest of Chapter VI-A, it is available under the old regime only.
At a glance
- Self and family, all below 60
- ₹25,000
- Self, family and parents, all below 60
- ₹50,000
- Self and family below 60, senior citizen parents
- ₹75,000
- Self, family and parents all 60 or above
- ₹1,00,000
- Preventive health check-up
- Up to ₹5,000, within the above limits
- Regime
- Old regime only
How the limits stack
There are two separate buckets: one for you, your spouse and dependent children, and one for your parents. Each has its own limit, and the limits are higher where the people insured are 60 or above. The headline ₹1,00,000 arises where both buckets are at the senior citizen rate.
Parents do not need to be dependent on you for the second bucket to apply. What matters is that you paid the premium.
Senior citizens without a policy
Where a senior citizen has no health insurance, actual medical expenditure can be claimed within the applicable ceiling instead. This is genuinely useful for very elderly parents who cannot obtain cover at any sensible price, and it is frequently missed.
Cash premiums get no deduction at all, and the check-up is the only exception
A health insurance premium paid in cash attracts no deduction under section 80D, however genuine the payment and however good the receipt. It must go through a banking channel — bank transfer, cheque, card or UPI. The single exception is preventive health check-up expenditure, where cash is accepted within the ₹5,000 sub-limit. People who pay an agent in cash for a parent's policy lose the entire deduction on that premium and only discover it when the return is prepared, by which time the payment cannot be re-made.
Questions we get asked
Can I claim for parents who are not dependent on me?
Yes. Dependency is not the test for the parents' limit — paying the premium is.
Is a preventive check-up covered even without a policy?
Yes, up to ₹5,000, and it sits within the overall limit rather than on top of it. Cash is accepted for this item.
Does 80D work in the new regime?
No. It is an old-regime deduction only.
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