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By Alex Diaz · How we calculate this
A private room in a nursing home costs a median of well above $9,000 a month nationally, with a semi-private room running somewhat less for a comparable level of care, and both figures have been climbing faster than general inflation for years. This is an ongoing monthly cost, not a one-time purchase, so the calculator weighs the amount you enter against your income and any existing debt to show how much room it would actually leave in your budget.
These key factors affect nursing home affordability
Level of care and room type
A shared room costs less than a private one, and memory care or a higher level of skilled nursing runs above standard long-term care, sometimes substantially so. Staffing tends to track the price too: facilities with more nursing staff per resident, which generally means more attention for complex medical needs, are usually priced toward the higher end of the range.
Location
Nursing home costs vary enormously by state and even by metro area within a state, more than almost any other major expense on this site. It's common for the same level of care to cost roughly twice as much in a high-cost state as in a low-cost one, so a national median is really just a starting point for a conversation with a facility near you, not a number to plan around directly.
Insurance and benefits
It helps to know upfront what Medicare will and won't do here: it can cover up to 100 days in a skilled nursing facility after a qualifying hospital stay, with a coinsurance charge kicking in partway through that stay, but it doesn't pay for long-term custodial nursing home care at all. That's a common and expensive misunderstanding. Long-term care insurance and veterans' benefits can offset real costs, and Medicaid can too, but only once personal assets are largely spent down, and Medicaid's rules include a five-year look-back period on asset transfers that's worth understanding well before you might actually need the benefit.
How to use your results
- A shared room's typical cost against a private room in your area.
- Factor in any long-term care insurance or veterans' benefits that would offset the monthly cost.
- Include existing debt for a realistic picture of what's actually left over.
Ways to make nursing home care more affordable
- Check long-term care insurance policies and veterans' benefits, which can cover a meaningful share of the cost.
- Compare facilities in nearby lower-cost areas if relocating is realistic.
- Ask an elder law attorney or benefits counselor about Medicaid planning well before assets are depleted.
- Get quotes from multiple facilities, since pricing for a similar level of care can vary more than expected.
More elder & legal care calculators
Peer comparison data
Bureau of Labor Statistics (median income by age), Experian (credit score by age)
Used by the “how you compare” figures in the sidebar, not by the costs on this page.
Every figure on this site, with its source and the date it was last verified
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