Those figures are the national medians from CareScout's 2025 Cost of Care Survey: adult day health care at the bottom, a private nursing home room at the top. Which one your family needs is a question about hours, not about which setting sounds right — and that question has an arithmetic answer you can get in under 30 seconds.
Data: CareScout Cost of Care Survey — 2025 national medians
Every number on this site comes from one published survey, with its fieldwork window attached (July–November 2025).
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Data: CareScout Cost of Care Survey — 2025 national medians. National medians — your local price can differ by up to 40%. Every row links to the page that breaks that care type down.
| Care type | Monthly | Annual |
|---|---|---|
| Non-Medical Caregiver (In-Home) | $6,673 | $80,080 |
| Adult Day Health Care | $2,058 | $24,700 |
| Assisted Living Community | $6,200 | $74,400 |
| Nursing Home — Semi-Private Room | $9,581 | $114,975 |
| Nursing Home — Private Room | $10,798 | $129,575 |
These are the categories that come up again and again when people try to keep someone at home longer. Prices change constantly, so instead of quoting a number that will be wrong next month, here is what to check before you buy.
Falls are the most common reason a family moves from home care to a facility — and the most expensive to recover from.
A rollator with a seat and brakes lets someone stay mobile — and keep the hours of paid care lower.
Most falls happen in the bathroom. Grab bars and a shower chair are the cheapest intervention on this page.
If the person is alone for part of the day, this is the difference between a fall and a fall found hours later.
A recurring cost families rarely budget for — and one of the first things that pushes hours of care up.
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. This does not change what we recommend — the selection criteria above are the same ones we would give a friend.
This site exists to answer the cost questions families actually have. If there is a number you could not find — a state, a care type, a benefit offset — tell us and we will build it.
In-home care assumes 44 hours per week — the calculator lets you change that, and every figure above moves with it.
Open the care cost calculator →Each guide works out the price of one setting in full: what is included, what gets billed on top, and the point at which it stops being the cheaper choice.
Four of the five care types went up between the last two surveys and one went down. Here is the change for each, in dollars rather than in adjectives — including the one that fell.
Every care type here is priced per month except this one, which is billed by the hour. That one difference is what makes in-home care cheap at 15 hours a week and the most expensive option at 50.
The cheapest care type in the survey, and the one families most often skip past without pricing. Here is what a day of attendance buys compared with the same hours of in-home care.
The most common step up from care at home. What the monthly fee covers, what gets billed on top of it, and the two line items to ask for in writing before signing.
Two published rates, and a $14,600-a-year gap between them. Room type and billing period (31-day months cost more than 28-day months) are the two things that move this number.
Median care cost divided by median household income, for every state — a calculation we make ourselves from two public sources, with the formula shown on the page so you can check the inputs.
61 plain-English guides on the questions families ask first — what Medicare and Medicaid actually cover, what the VA pays, and how the monthly numbers add up. Every guide cites its sources, and where a figure is not published we say so instead of estimating.
The 3-day rule, the 100-day benefit period, and what happens on day 101.
Skilled home health versus custodial help, and where the coverage line sits.
It does not — here is what pays instead, and how that changes the plan.
When adult day health care is covered, and what replaces it when it is not.
Skilled, short-term care versus long-term care: which programme pays for what.
The 100-day limit, the daily co-pay, and the options from day 101.
Why room and board is custodial care, what an Advantage plan does cover, and what pays instead.
$0 toward the monthly rate — the 2026 amounts Medicare can still pay for skilled care, and who covers the rest.
The income test, the asset test and the level-of-care determination.
Almost never by name — what a home and community based waiver actually covers.
No separate memory care benefit: the setting decides who pays, and how to price it honestly.
What a waiver funds, why the waitlist decides everything, and how to apply.
Why 1915(c) waivers cap enrollment and keep waiting lists, and what moves you up the line.
What counts, what is exempt, and how the numbers are tested.
The five-year transfer review and how a penalty period is calculated.
What the spouse at home is allowed to keep when Medicaid starts paying.
Who to apply to, the level-of-care test that decides most files, and the documents to gather.
A state assessor decides whether the person needs nursing-home-level care, and that decision, not the bank balance, is what stops most applications.
VA nursing homes, contract care and the aid and attendance benefit.
Who qualifies, what it pays towards assisted living, and the paperwork.
A&A is cash added to a VA pension, not a care contract — it can pay an in-home caregiver, and the 2026 ceiling is about $2,424 a month.
The service list, the benefit triggers, the exclusions and the dementia carve-out.
Which care costs are eligible, and the rules that decide a reimbursement.
A policy pays on death, not monthly — the three routes that turn it into cash.
Learn how a HECM reverse mortgage works, who qualifies, costs involved, and potential risks to consider before using home equity to pay for care.
Usually yes — but the covered-service list, the facility licence and the benefit trigger each have to line up.
Where the two monthly numbers cross as the hours of help go up.
January 2027 is a 3.6% raise; late 2032 is a 78%-payable projection. Two dates, opposite meanings.
The average benefit covers 22% of a semi-private room. After a 22% cut, 17% — and the gap by care type.
The add-ons that turn a quoted monthly rate into the real invoice.
State medians from $24 to $46 an hour, and what the weekly hours do to the monthly bill.
About $6,200 against $9,581 a month, and what the difference actually buys.
The 2025 national median is $95 a day — here is the cost at two, three and five days a week.
The spend-down order, the other payment paths, and what to do before the money is gone.
The base rate is not the bill: seven charges outside it, and how to get the real number before signing.
The 2025 median is $6,200 a month and the same survey reports a 5% rise — what drives it and how it reaches your bill.
A semi-private room runs $5,627 a month in Texas and $27,831 in Alaska, against a $9,581 national median.
An assisted living room runs $4,369 a month in Mississippi and $12,096 a month in Hawaii, against a $6,200 national median.
The national median for assisted living is $6,200/month and for a semi-private nursing home room is $9,581/month.
In-home help is about $35 an hour, adult day care $95 a day, and a semi-private nursing home room $315 a day. What Medicare covers (hospice only) and what to ask before booking.
Adult day care is $95 a day and a non-medical home aide is $35 an hour, so the break-even is about two hours and 45 minutes of help a day. What that means at two, three and eight hours, and why nights and weekends change the answer.
An Illinois semi-private room runs $8,304 a month and a private room $9,216, about 13% to 15% below the national median, per the CareScout 2025 survey.
An Ohio semi-private room runs $9,186 a month and a private room $10,389, about 4% below the national median, per the CareScout 2025 survey.
A Tennessee semi-private room runs $9,429 a month and a private room $10,038, about 2% and 7% below the national median, per the CareScout 2025 survey.
A Pennsylvania semi-private room runs $11,954 a month and a private room $13,688, about 25% to 27% above the national median, per the CareScout 2025 survey.
A Massachusetts semi-private room runs $14,448 a month and a private room $15,817, about 51% and 46% above the national median, per the CareScout 2025 survey.
A Georgia semi-private room runs $8,821 a month and a private room $9,429, about 8% and 13% below the national median, per the CareScout 2025 survey.
A North Carolina semi-private room runs $9,733 a month and a private room $10,798, about 2% above the national median for a shared room, per the CareScout 2025 survey.
A Michigan semi-private room runs $11,254 a month and a private room $11,969, about 17% above the national median for a shared room, per the CareScout 2025 survey.
A California semi-private room runs $12,167 a month and a private room $15,178, per the CareScout 2025 survey.
A Texas semi-private room runs $5,627 a month and a private room $7,604, the lowest of the 50 states, per the CareScout 2025 survey.
A Florida semi-private room runs $10,342 a month and a private room $12,167, about 8% and 13% above the national median, per the CareScout 2025 survey.
A New York semi-private room runs $15,528 a month and a private room $16,729, 62% and 55% above the national median, per the CareScout 2025 survey.
An Arizona nursing home charges a median $8,365 a month for a semi-private room and $11,437 for a private room: 13% below the national median for a shared room, 6% above it for a private one.
A Virginia nursing home costs a median of $10,250 a month for a semi-private room and $11,680 for a private room, per…
A Washington nursing home costs a median of $13,155 a month for a semi-private room and $15,969 for a private room, per the CareScout 2025 Cost of Care Survey…
The room rate covers the room, meals and basic nursing. Medication, therapy and transport are billed separately, and they are why the real bill runs above the quote.
A 12-point checklist to run before signing anything.
Part of it, and the contract sets how much: New York's floor is a 4% processing fee then 2% a month off the refund, zero at 48 months.
Same care tier, twelve-month totals, one-time fees, then the notice clause: the method that shows which quote is actually cheaper.
Which bed type is actually full, what to get in writing, and the routes that turn a discharge deadline into a plan.
Free calculators, plus city-level cost pages where we have the data to publish a number rather than a national average.
Put in your own hours and care type to see the monthly number for your situation.
Works out whether Medicare Part D covers the gap while a prior authorisation is pending.
What the monthly rate looks like locally, and what gets billed on top of it.
Where every figure comes from, the three rules we publish by, and how automation is used — and what it is never used for.
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