Senior care in Florida ranges from non-medical home care billed by the hour, about $35 at the national median, to a private nursing-home room, where the Florida median is about $146,000 a year. Assisted living in Florida runs $66,000 to $67,320 a year, roughly a tenth below the national median of $74,400 a year ($6,200 a month), while nursing-home care runs above the national line.,, The setting a family chooses can swing the yearly bill by tens of thousands of dollars, so the cost question and the care-level question are really the same question.

This guide lays out what each senior-care setting in Florida costs, where those figures come from and why other sites quote different ones, what pushes the price up or down, and how families actually pay, from private funds to Florida Medicaid for those who qualify.

In This Guide

What Each Senior Care Setting Costs in Florida

The figures below come from the CareScout (formerly Genworth) Cost of Care Survey, an industry survey of long-term-care prices. The most recent national edition is the CareScout 2025 Cost of Care Survey, released March 2, 2026, and built on rates gathered from long-term care providers nationwide between July and November 2025., These are medians from an industry survey, not government rates and not maximums, so the cost at any one provider can land higher or lower depending on county, room type, and how much care a person needs. CareScout itself cautions that costs vary widely with where care is delivered, the services needed, and the level of support required, and that any particular provider may differ significantly from the median for similar providers near you.

Care setting Florida National
Non-medical home care (per hour) about $32 about $35
Assisted living (per month) $5,610 (CareScout's only Florida monthly figure; its other annual figure, $66,000, divides to about $5,500) about $6,200
Memory care (per month) No CareScout figure (memory care is not in its state tables) No CareScout figure
Nursing home, semi-private room (per year) about $124,100 about $114,975
Nursing home, private room (per year) about $146,000 about $129,575

Nursing homes are the most expensive setting. In Florida, a private room runs about $146,000 a year (roughly $12,167 a month), above the 2025 national median of about $129,575 a year ($355 a day)., A semi-private room in Florida runs about $124,100 a year (roughly $10,342 a month), also above the national 2025 semi-private median of about $114,975 a year ($315 a day). That semi-private figure did not move from the 2024 survey, while the private-room median rose from $138,700.,

Assisted living is the middle tier. The CareScout 2025 survey, released March 2, 2026, puts Florida assisted living at $66,000 to $67,320 a year for a private one-bedroom unit, against a national median of about $6,200 a month ($74,400 a year), up 5% year over year. Both Florida figures sit roughly a tenth below the national annual median. It is a range rather than one number because CareScout publishes two different Florida figures of the same date: its Florida data release reports $66,000 a year, while its data tables report $67,320 a year and $5,610 a month, the only Florida monthly figure it publishes. Dividing the $66,000 by twelve gives about $5,500 a month, but that is arithmetic, not a CareScout rate. The older Florida monthly figure that still circulates is the retired 2024 edition's $63,885 annual median divided by twelve, which CareScout never published as a monthly rate.

Memory care is a specialized form of assisted living for people with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, and the resident pays for the room or apartment and may need to pay extra for the special care. CareScout's 2025 state tables cover six care types and memory care is not one of them, so they give no Florida memory-care median. The nearest Florida benchmark they offer is the assisted-living median of $5,610 a month ($67,320 a year) for a private one-bedroom unit, which is an assisted-living figure, not a memory-care rate. When you compare memory-care communities, ask each one what its dementia-care charges add to the base rate.

In-home care is billed by the hour, not the month. In its 2025 survey, CareScout reports a single non-medical caregiver rate of about $35 an hour nationally, which works out to roughly $80,080 a year at 44 hours a week. In Florida the same survey puts the median at $32 an hour, which CareScout states as $73,216 a year on the same 44-hour-a-week basis. A few hours of daily help stays affordable, but round-the-clock home care rarely does, because the hours multiply quickly. That is why heavy daily needs often tip the math toward a facility even when the home is the preference.

Why Published Cost Numbers Disagree

Search "cost of senior care in Florida" and different pages quote different figures. Often that is not because one of them is wrong but because they report different surveys, or different editions of the same one.

Two surveys show the gap. CareScout (formerly Genworth) puts the national median for a semi-private nursing-home room at $114,975 a year, while the federal long-term care insurance program, FLTCIP, puts the national average for the same room at $112,420 a year in its own 2024 survey, a different number for what sounds like the same thing. Even one publisher can disagree with itself: for Florida assisted living, CareScout reports $66,000 a year in its Florida data release and $67,320 a year in its data tables of the same date.

Two things make the confusion worse. First, many published figures are stale or undated: the CareScout survey re-baselined to its 2025 edition in March 2026, so any page still quoting 2023 or 2024 medians is quietly a year or more behind. Second, the 2025 survey changed its own method: CareScout merged the former "homemaker" and "home health aide" categories into a single "non-medical caregiver" line. A family comparing this year's one home-care number to last year's two is comparing different things. This guide uses the current CareScout 2025 figures, dated and attributed, and flags where the survey has no Florida-specific figure, so you can see what you are looking at.

Why Florida Senior Care Costs Vary So Much

A major driver of cost is the level of care a person needs. A nursing home includes all the services of an assisted-living facility plus full-time nursing care, 24 hours a day, while assisted living is for people who may need some help with daily tasks but do not need around-the-clock care. That difference is stark: a private nursing-home room in Florida runs about $146,000 a year against a Florida assisted-living figure of $66,000 to $67,320 a year, more than double.,

Geography is another. Every figure above is a statewide median, and CareScout states that costs vary widely with where care is delivered and that the cost at any particular provider may differ significantly from the median for similar providers in your own area. A quote from a Miami provider and a quote from a rural county can differ by a wide margin for the same service.

Within any single setting, the advertised rate may not be the whole bill. The National Institute on Aging's checklist for comparing facilities tells families to ask what is included in the fee and what services or options would cost extra, and whether the costs for a special dementia unit differ from those for the rest of the facility. When you compare quotes, ask what the base rate includes and what triggers an add-on, because two facilities with similar headline prices can bill differently once care needs rise.

How to Pay for Senior Care in Florida

Years of senior care are rarely paid from one source. Many families start with private funds and turn to other payers as the bills mount. Here is how the main options work in Florida.

Private pay

Private pay is savings, income, the proceeds of a home sale, and long-term care insurance if a person bought it. It is the most flexible option, since it covers any setting, but it is also the one that runs out, and at about $146,000 a year for a private nursing-home room, it can run out faster than families expect. Long-term care insurance, where it exists, can offset a share of the cost, though what it pays and for how long depends on the policy's terms.

Florida Medicaid

Florida Medicaid pays for long-term care, including nursing-facility care and home- and community-based services, for people who meet both a level-of-care test and the financial rules. Florida sets eligibility tightly, and the details matter for planning. It is a strict income-cap state for long-term care: in 2026 a single applicant's gross monthly income generally cannot exceed $2,982 a month, equal to 300% of the federal Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefit rate of $994 a month. An applicant whose income sits above that cap is not simply disqualified: Florida's rule says they may qualify by establishing a Qualified Income Trust (commonly called a Miller Trust), a trust made up only of the person's pension, Social Security, and other income, with the state receiving whatever remains at death, up to the total Medicaid paid on their behalf. The countable-asset limit is $2,000 for a single applicant, whether the care is in a nursing facility or at home, or $5,000 for someone whose income falls within the lower MEDS-AD limit. When a married applicant needs nursing-facility care, spousal-impoverishment rules let the at-home spouse keep a Community Spouse Resource Allowance, so the couple is not held to a single person's asset limit. Florida's eligibility manual applies the same allowance to SMMC-LTC home- and community-based care, though the state's rule text is narrower there, so a couple seeking care at home or in assisted living should confirm how it applies with the Department of Children and Families. Florida sets that allowance at the federal maximum standard, or court-ordered support if larger, so $162,660 in 2026 is the floor of the allowance, not a ceiling.

How that coverage is delivered depends on the setting. People already living in a nursing facility qualify through the Institutional Care Program, while home- and community-based care runs through Statewide Medicaid Managed Care Long-Term Care (SMMC-LTC), whose plans deliver long-term care services, nursing-facility care among them., The home- and community-based side is not an open entitlement: enrollment offers depend on available funding, and applicants screened at a high priority rank wait on a statewide pre-enrollment list ordered by priority score, a list that does not apply to Institutional Care Program applicants living in a nursing facility. Florida applies a five-year look-back, under federal Medicaid rules, to assets or income given away for less than fair market value: such a transfer is presumed to have been made to qualify and can trigger a period of ineligibility unless the applicant proves another purpose, so last-minute transfers to qualify can backfire.

One gap trips up many families: Medicaid does not pay the room-and-board cost of assisted living. Florida's Medicaid long-term-care coverage can help pay for care services in an assisted-living facility, but federal Medicaid rules bar home- and community-based waivers from paying room and board, so the resident pays the housing and meal portion of the bill., A family choosing assisted living should plan to cover room and board privately, even where the waiver helps pay for the care services themselves.

A note on estate recovery, because the fear is common in Florida. The state's Medicaid Estate Recovery Program can recover what Medicaid paid for a person's care from age 55 on, by filing a claim against the deceased recipient's estate in probate, but Florida law bars enforcing that debt against property exempt from creditors, and the constitutional homestead protection shields the primary residence in most cases. Florida also does not enforce the debt when the recipient is survived by a spouse, a child under 21, or a blind or permanently and totally disabled child. A nursing-home resident on Medicaid keeps a small Personal Needs Allowance, $160 a month in Florida. After further deductions where they apply, such as an allowance for an at-home spouse or dependent and uncovered medical expenses, the rest of their income goes to the facility as their share of the cost.

Medicare

A final note on Medicare, because the assumption is common: Medicare does not cover custodial care, the help with bathing, dressing, and other daily activities, when that is the only care a person needs, which is why it does not pay for long-term stays in a nursing home or assisted living. It covers skilled nursing and therapy care instead, in a Medicare-certified skilled nursing facility or through its home health benefit. That long-term care is what private pay and Medicaid cover.

How to Plan and Budget

Start by matching the setting to the actual need, not the other way around. The settings spread far apart in price, so the choice carries real money: a candid assessment of how much help a person truly needs is worth more than a default assumption. Many people who need help with daily tasks but not skilled nursing are well served by assisted living or a few hours a day of in-home care, both of which cost far less than a nursing home, while someone needing continuous skilled care will find a nursing facility is the right and necessary setting.,,

Then build a realistic timeline. Estimate the monthly cost of the right setting, list the resources available to pay for it, and work out how long private funds will last before Medicaid would come into play. If Medicaid is likely to be part of the plan, the five-year look-back and the income-cap rules reward starting early and getting advice, because last-minute moves to qualify can trigger penalties, and an applicant over the income cap will want the Qualified Income Trust, the rule's route past the cap, set up in good time.

For a concrete next step, the Florida Department of Elder Affairs runs the statewide Elder Helpline at 1-800-963-5337, which can route you to your local Aging and Disability Resource Center, the office that screens applicants for the SMMC-LTC program., Nationally, the federal Eldercare Locator connects families to local services. Two Brevy guides go deeper: Medicaid Planning Strategies walks through how to position assets and income within the rules, and Florida's Medicaid Personal Needs Allowance covers the small monthly amount a resident keeps.

Finally, budget for the add-ons, not just the base rate. Care needs can rise over time, so the figure you start with may not be the figure you finish with. A plan that assumes some increase is more likely to hold up than one built on today's lowest quote.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does senior care cost in Florida?

It depends heavily on the setting. Per the CareScout 2025 Cost of Care Survey, a private nursing-home room in Florida runs about $146,000 a year, a semi-private room about $124,100, and assisted living $66,000 to $67,320 a year ($5,610 a month in CareScout's tables)., A non-medical home caregiver runs a median $32 an hour in Florida. The survey has no Florida memory-care figure; its nearest benchmark is that assisted-living median. These are statewide industry-survey medians, not maximums, so an individual provider can cost significantly more or less than the median for similar providers nearby.

Is senior care more expensive in Florida than the national average?

It is mixed, but facility care leans expensive. Florida's nursing-home rates run above the national median, with a private room at about $146,000 a year versus a national 2025 median of about $129,575., Assisted living runs $66,000 to $67,320 a year, roughly a tenth below the national median of $74,400 a year ($6,200 a month). So the answer depends entirely on which setting a family needs.

How much does memory care cost in Florida?

CareScout's survey gives no Florida median for memory care: its 2025 state tables do not include it, and the nearest Florida benchmark they give is the assisted-living median of $5,610 a month ($67,320 a year), which is an assisted-living figure, not a memory-care rate. Memory care is a specialized form of assisted living for people with dementia, and residents may need to pay extra for the special care, so ask each community for its full monthly price, including dementia-care charges.

Does Medicaid pay for senior care in Florida?

For nursing-facility care and home- and community-based services, yes, if a person meets a level-of-care test and the financial rules. Florida is a strict income-cap state: in 2026 a single applicant's gross monthly income generally cannot exceed $2,982, and an applicant above that cap may still qualify by establishing a Qualified Income Trust. The asset limit is generally $2,000 for a single applicant, in a nursing facility or at home. Nursing-facility residents qualify through the Institutional Care Program, while home- and community-based care runs through Statewide Medicaid Managed Care Long-Term Care (SMMC-LTC), which is not an open entitlement and keeps a pre-enrollment list.,

Does Medicaid cover assisted living in Florida?

Not the room-and-board cost. Florida's Medicaid long-term-care coverage can help pay for care services in an assisted-living facility, but federal Medicaid rules bar home- and community-based waivers from paying room and board, so the resident pays that portion from their own income., A family choosing assisted living should plan to pay room and board privately.

How do families pay for senior care in Florida?

Many start with private pay, savings, income, home-sale proceeds, and long-term care insurance if they have it, then turn to Florida Medicaid once a person meets the level-of-care and financial rules. Because Florida has a five-year look-back on transferred assets and an income cap of $2,982 a month, above which a Qualified Income Trust is the route to eligibility, planning early and getting professional advice usually pays off. Florida's estate recovery works through a claim against the deceased recipient's estate in probate, and the constitutional homestead protection shields the primary residence in most cases.

Learn More

Care TypesCost of Senior Care by State: Assisted Living, Nursing Home, and Home CareThe 2026 national median cost of assisted living, memory care, nursing homes, and in-home care, why your state differs, and your state's own cost guide. Care TypesAssisted Living in FloridaHow Florida assisted living works in 2026: ALF specialty licenses (ECC, LNS, LMH), what forces a nursing-home transfer, costs, and how SMMC LTC Medicaid pays. Care TypesNursing Homes in FloridaHow Florida nursing homes are regulated, how to read CMS and AHCA ratings, resident rights, and how Medicaid Institutional Care Program pays for care. Care TypesMemory Care in FloridaFlorida's 2026 memory care law (SB 1404) redefines who can call themselves a memory care facility. See what it means for costs, Medicaid, and safe placement. Care TypesHome Care vs. Home Health in FloridaHome care vs. home health in Florida: home health is skilled, AHCA-licensed care Medicare covers; home care is non-medical help Medicare will not pay for. Care TypesAssisted Living vs. Nursing Home in FloridaAssisted living vs. a nursing home in Florida turns on level of care and who pays: assisted living runs about $5,610/month, a nursing home nearly twice that.
MedicaidMedicaid Planning StrategiesSee which assets you keep, how the 5-year look-back works, and the legal moves that qualify you for Medicaid long-term care without losing the house. MedicaidFlorida's Medicaid Personal Needs AllowanceFlorida Medicaid's $160/month Personal Needs Allowance for 2026: what residents keep, how patient-pay is calculated, and how families can protect it.

Find personalized help building a realistic senior-care budget for Florida at brevy.com.

The information on Brevy.com is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional legal, financial, or medical advice. Rules vary by state and program and change frequently. Always verify with the relevant agency or a qualified professional. Brevy is not a law firm, financial advisor, or healthcare provider.

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