Nursing Home Cost Calculator by State

These figures come from an annual industry survey of long-term care providers, not a government source, since nursing home pricing is set by the private market. The national median gives a starting point, but the real range is wide: Texas and a handful of other states run closer to $5,800 a month for a semi-private room, while Alaska sits in a category of its own at over $32,000 a month, driven by its remoteness and limited number of providers. Massachusetts and Connecticut also run well above the national median. These are private-pay rates, what a facility would charge someone paying out of pocket, not what Medicare or Medicaid actually reimburses, which is typically negotiated lower. Medicare's coverage here is limited too: it only pays for short-term skilled nursing stays, up to 100 days per benefit period, and only after a qualifying hospital stay, not the kind of long-term custodial care most nursing home residents actually need. That gap is exactly why Medicaid eligibility for long-term care matters so much for so many families, worth checking with this site's Medicaid Long-Term Care Eligibility Estimator tool alongside these cost figures.