Breaking News: West Virginia Senate Unveils Revolutionary Bill to Ease Tax Burden on Medical Expenses

A bill that would allow West Virginia residents to deduct medical expenses from their state income taxes was approved by the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee on Monday. The bill, SB 209, would take effect on January 1, 2024, and would permit taxpayers to deduct from their adjusted gross income any medical expenses that are not reimbursed by insurance. The bill does not define what qualifies as a medical expense, but it is based on the federal code, which includes payments for treatments related to the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, based on a report by Yahoo on January 23, 2022.

However, the bill does not contain a provision like the one in the IRS code that states medical expenses must exceed 7.5% of the taxpayer’s adjusted gross income before they can be deducted. This makes it difficult for the state to predict the cost of the bill, as not everyone itemizes their deductions. State Tax Commissioner Matthew Irby estimates that the revenue decrease from the bill would be significant and the administrative costs would be $103,000 in the fiscal year 2025, as reported by West Virginia Metro News on January 23, 2022.

Additionally, the committee approved a bill that would permit Health Care Sharing Ministries, a faith-based alternative to health insurance, to operate in the state. The bill, SB 292, creates the Health Care Sharing Ministries Freedom to Share Act and exempts sharing ministries from the state’s insurance laws. The measure underlines that these sharing ministries are not medical insurance, but it does mandate that a public higher education institution that needs health insurance acknowledge a student’s involvement in a sharing ministry as an alternative to insurance.