Updated September 29, 2026. Quick answer: The dollar limit on how much of a long-term care insurance premium counts as a deductible medical expense under 26 U.S.C. §213(d)(10) is age-banded and rises every year with inflation. For 2026, the five bands are $500 (age 40 or younger), $930 (41-50), $1,860 (51-60), $4,960 (61-70), and $6,200 (over 70), per IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32, each up from 2025’s $480, $900, $1,800, $4,810, and $6,020. No named forecaster has published a 2027 projection for these age bands as of this page’s last update.
Eligible long-term care premium limits by age, 2025-2026
| Attained age by year end | 2025 | 2026 | Projected 2027 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 40 or younger | $480 | $500 | Not yet projected |
| 41-50 | $900 | $930 | Not yet projected |
| 51-60 | $1,800 | $1,860 | Not yet projected |
| 61-70 | $4,810 | $4,960 | Not yet projected |
| Over 70 | $6,020 | $6,200 | Not yet projected |
A medical-expense limit, not a premium cap
This is not a limit on what a long-term care insurance premium can cost; it is a limit on how much of that premium the tax code treats as a deductible “medical care” expense under 26 U.S.C. §213(d)(10), still subject to the general rule that only medical expenses above 7.5 percent of adjusted gross income are deductible at all (and only for taxpayers who itemize). The five age bands are indexed every year under 26 U.S.C. §213(d)(10)(B), which uses the medical care component of the C-CPI-U rather than the general cost-of-living adjustment, and are published in the same annual IRS Revenue Procedure that sets many other figures on this site, including the adoption credit and the student loan interest deduction phase-out.
The 2027 gap: nobody has projected this one yet
Neither the Bloomberg Tax nor the Thomson Reuters Checkpoint 2027 projection reports published around September 11, 2026 include a §213(d)(10) line item; both confine their published scope to brackets, the standard deduction, the AMT exemption, and a handful of credits. This page will be updated with a 2027 projection the first time a named forecaster publishes one, and with the official figures the day the IRS issues its 2027 Revenue Procedure.
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The age-banded limits on this page were checked against IRS Revenue Procedures 2025-32 (2026 amounts) and 2024-40 (2025 amounts) and 26 U.S.C. §213(d)(10) on September 29, 2026.
- IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32, section 4.27: the exact 2026 age-banded dollar limits, read directly from the PDF’s text.
- IRS Revenue Procedure 2024-40, section 2.28: the exact 2025 age-banded dollar limits, read directly from the PDF’s text.
- 26 U.S.C. §213 (uscode.house.gov): the statute that defines these figures.
Statute: 26 U.S.C. §213(d)(10).
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General information, not tax or legal advice. This page will be updated with the official 2027 figure the day it is announced.