You are right, pre-tax dollars is the same as tax deduction. But for self-employment (the first point), there are more conditions, and people might be out of lu

You are right, pre-tax dollars is the same as tax deduction. But for self-employment (the first point), there are more conditions, and people might be out of luck. For example if you could be insured by your spouse's employee based insurance, and you choose to buy your own insurance.