How much care costs rose this year
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.
What each type of elder care costs, and which one your budget can actually carry
Four care settings, five published rates, and one thing they all have in common: the price per month is not the price you pay. Hourly care scales with the hours you buy, adult day care charges by the day of attendance, and nursing homes bill 365 days a year. Each page below works that arithmetic out in full.
Data: CareScout Cost of Care Survey — 2025 national medians
Data: CareScout Cost of Care Survey — 2025 national medians — fieldwork July–November 2025. Local prices can differ by up to 40%.
| 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 |
In-home caregiver cost
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.
Adult day health care cost
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.
Assisted living cost
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.
Nursing home costs
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.
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How to use these pages
- Start with the hours, not the setting. Decide how many hours a week your parent actually needs help with, then see which setting covers those hours for the least money. The calculator does this in one screen.
- Compare two settings, never five. The realistic choice is almost always between the setting you have now and the next one up. Compare those two honestly before shopping further.
- Ask for the full fee schedule. Every page here names the line items that get billed on top of the headline rate. Asking for them in writing before you commit is the highest-value hour you will spend.
What families actually buy — and how to choose it
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.
Bed rails & fall protection
Falls are the most common reason a family moves from home care to a facility — and the most expensive to recover from.
- Check the weight limit and whether it fits the mattress thickness you have
- Adjustable height beats fixed if the bed is not a hospital bed
- Look for a model that folds down, so it does not block getting out
Walkers & rollators
A rollator with a seat and brakes lets someone stay mobile — and keep the hours of paid care lower.
- Measure the handle height with the person standing; wrong height causes back pain
- Test the brakes: loop brakes are easier for arthritic hands than squeeze brakes
- Width matters if hallways or bathroom doors are narrow
Bathroom safety
Most falls happen in the bathroom. Grab bars and a shower chair are the cheapest intervention on this page.
- Grab bars must be screwed into studs — suction cups are not a fall-prevention device
- A shower chair with a back and arms is easier to stand up from
- Non-slip mat inside and outside the tub
Medical alert systems
If the person is alone for part of the day, this is the difference between a fall and a fall found hours later.
- Decide between a landline base and cellular — no landline means cellular only
- Check the monthly cost, not just the device price; it is the recurring part that adds up
- Fall detection is a separate feature and usually costs more
Incontinence supplies
A recurring cost families rarely budget for — and one of the first things that pushes hours of care up.
- Match absorbency to overnight vs daytime use; one product for both wastes money
- Check the size chart by waist measurement, not clothing size
- Subscribe-and-save pricing is usually cheaper than one-off orders for this category
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.
Frequently asked questions
Why is every number on this site a national median?
Because a median is the one figure a public survey can publish honestly for the whole country. Individual quotes vary widely — the survey itself warns that a specific provider can differ significantly from the median for its own market. State-level medians exist in the survey but this site does not republish them yet, so treat the national figure as a planning baseline and confirm with local quotes.
Which care types does this site cover, and which does it not?
Five: in-home non-medical caregiving, adult day health care, assisted living, and nursing home care in a semi-private or private room. The survey also publishes a rate for skilled nursing in the home ($90/hour in 2025) and for private duty nursing. Those are clinical services with a different pricing structure, so they are not in the calculator or on these pages.
Do the numbers include medication, therapy, or one-off costs?
No. Each figure is the median price of the care setting itself. Medication management, higher care tiers, transportation, therapies, and one-off move-in or community fees are usually billed on top of it — ask any provider for a full fee schedule rather than the headline rate.
How current is this data?
Every figure comes from CareScout's Cost of Care Survey with a fieldwork window of July–November 2025. The survey also publishes the prior year for comparison, which is how the year-over-year percentages on these pages are calculated. Costs generally rise, so a figure from an older survey will understate what you are likely to be quoted today.