Long-Term Care Cost Calculator

Long-term care, whether that means a home health aide, an assisted living apartment, or a nursing home stay, ranks among the largest expenses a household may ever face, and this tool projects those costs forward with inflation so you can plan for them. To anchor the math, the 2026 national median for a private room in a nursing home is projected at roughly $115,000 annually, assisted living at $64,000 annually, and home health aide services at $34 per hour.

The projection is inflation-adjusted and driven by the care type you pick, the duration you expect, and an annual inflation rate you can adjust from its 3% default. It applies the formula Future Cost = Current Median Cost * (1 + Annual Inflation Rate)^Number of Years, then multiplies that projected annual figure by the estimated length of care to produce a total.

These figures are national medians, so your real costs can swing widely with geographic location, the amenities of a given facility, and how much care you actually need. Plans tend to come up short when they assume too brief a stay or fail to account for care that grows more intensive over time. A financial advisor who specializes in long-term care planning can help pressure-test your assumptions.