# Travel for Care Act: Plain Language Summary

This bill makes it so that when employers pay for or reimburse employees' travel expenses to get an abortion or follow-up abortion care, that money won't be taxed as income. Specifically, it covers travel costs like transportation, meals, and lodging when an employee or their family member needs to travel away from home to receive abortion services or related medical care. Right now, these employer-paid benefits can be treated as taxable income, which means employees have to pay taxes on them. This bill changes that by saying these abortion-related travel benefits shouldn't count as taxable income at all.

The bill also makes sure that offering these travel benefits doesn't disqualify a health insurance plan from being considered a "high deductible health plan," which is important because high deductible plans work together with Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) that let people save money tax-free for medical expenses. Additionally, the bill sets a limit on how much of the meals and lodging costs can be deducted—they can't exceed the federal government's standard per diem rates for official travel, which vary by location.

The changes apply to employers of all sizes that offer health insurance to their workers. If you work for a company that decides to offer this benefit, any travel expenses your employer covers for you to receive abortion care or related follow-up treatment would no longer show up as taxable income on your paycheck. The bill essentially treats these abortion-related travel benefits the same way the tax code already treats other employer-paid medical travel expenses.

Travel for Care Act

Blumenauer, Earl

Travel for Care Act This bill allows a tax exemption for employer-reimbursed travel expenses for abortion-related care. These are expenses incurred by an employee or employee family members for travel, including meals and lodging, to receive an abortion or follow-up care related to such abortion. The bill also allows a medical expense tax deduction for such abortion-related travel expenses.