My mom had approx. $25,000 out of pocket med expense in 2015. Can she claim med.exp?

We should have asked how much income tax did she pay, which is more meaningful than how much the refund was. If her total monthly income was only $1750, the numbers don't make sense to me.

There must have been a lot of extra income. Medicare is exempt from taxes for low-income seniors. Of course, they wouldn't cut tax on it, so the tax refund lets us know she has other income. The OOP expense is deductible if your mother itemizes. Medical expenses that are above a certain percentage of the income can be deducted.

Did she have any other income, such as investment income?

A refund of $27 doesn't make sense unless she had a lot of other income to offset the medical expenses.

Did you check the return to make sure a Schedule A was prepared?

Genylee, my gosh $25k sounds terribly high. What happened? Or did Mom not have a secondary insurance to help pick up and pay what Medicare would not?

She can claim medical expense deductions on amounts exceeding 7.5% of her annual income. But I'm surprised she is paying any taxes at all on such a low income, and the deductions can't reduce her income tax below zero.