Cost of Senior Care in Florida (2026)

The cost of senior care in Florida runs from roughly $35 an hour for non-medical home care to about $146,000 a year for a private nursing-home room. Assisted living in Florida has historically run a little below the national median of $6,200 a month, while nursing-home care runs at or above the national line.1,2 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

• Key Takeaways
• What Each Senior Care Setting Costs in Florida
• Why Published Cost Numbers Disagree
• Why Florida Senior Care Costs Vary So Much
• How to Pay for Senior Care in Florida
• How to Plan and Budget
• Frequently Asked Questions

What Each Senior Care Setting Costs in Florida

The figures below come from the CareScout (formerly Genworth) Cost of Care Survey, the industry-standard source for long-term-care prices. The most recent national edition is the CareScout 2025 Cost of Care Survey, released in March 2026 and built on more than 25,000 provider rates collected between July and November 2025.2 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. Costs in high-cost metros such as Miami, Naples, and the Florida Keys run materially higher than the statewide median, while inland and panhandle counties run lower.1

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).1,2 Florida's nursing-home costs run at or above national medians; the most recent Florida-specific survey put the semi-private median at about $124,100 a year against a national 2025 semi-private median of about $114,975 a year ($315 a day). CareScout publishes the current Florida room-type figures in its interactive Cost of Care tool.1,2

Assisted living is the middle tier. Florida's assisted-living costs have historically run modestly below the national median, which the CareScout 2025 survey puts at about $6,200 a month ($74,400 a year), up 5% year over year.1 The most recent Florida-specific figure was about $5,324 a month ($63,885 a year), and the survey characterized Florida's long-term-care costs as broadly on par with national costs.1

Memory care, a secured form of assisted living for people with Alzheimer's or another dementia, runs about $5,495 a month in Florida (roughly $65,940 a year), per A Place for Mom's 2026 cost report.1 It typically costs about 25% more than standard assisted living, because of the additional staffing, the secured environment, and the specialized dementia programming it requires.1

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.2 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 every page returns a different figure. That is not because one of them is wrong; it is because they are reporting different surveys.

Three sources dominate. CareScout, the successor to Genworth, runs the survey most of the long-term-care industry treats as the standard, and it puts the national median for assisted living at about $6,200 a month.2 A Place for Mom publishes its own figures from its referral network, and SeniorLiving.org runs a third survey, each from its own methodology. For the same "national median assisted living," the three can differ by hundreds of dollars a month, and each site tends to present its own number as the number without naming the others.

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.2 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.2 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 national line, dated and attributed, and flags where a Florida-specific 2025 figure was not yet published, so you can see what you are looking at.

Why Florida Senior Care Costs Vary So Much

The single biggest driver of cost is the level of care a person needs. A nursing home provides 24-hour licensed nursing care, with nurses and aides on every shift plus the building, equipment, and oversight that skilled care requires. Assisted living is built for people who need help with daily tasks but not constant skilled nursing, so it carries a lighter staffing load and a lower price. That difference is stark: a private nursing-home room in Florida runs about $146,000 a year against a Florida assisted-living figure near $5,324 a month, more than double on an annual basis.1

Geography is the second driver. Florida's statewide medians hide a wide spread: South Florida and coastal markets such as Naples run well above the state line, while inland and panhandle counties often fall below it.1 A large, competitive caregiver market and a high concentration of older residents help keep the state's home-care rates from running away, but 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 is rarely the whole bill. A facility usually quotes a base rate for room and routine services, then adds charges as care needs grow: help with more activities of daily living, medication management, memory care, or a higher staffing tier. A resident who enters needing little help and later needs much more can see the monthly cost climb well past the opening figure. 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 very differently once care needs rise.

How to Pay for Senior Care in Florida

Almost no one pays for years of senior care out of a single source. Most families start with private funds and shift 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.1 Long-term care insurance, where it exists, can offset a share of the cost, though policies vary widely in what they pay and for how long.

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.3 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.4 An applicant whose income sits above that cap is not simply disqualified, but because Florida is an income-cap state rather than a medically needy one for long-term care, they must set up a Qualified Income Trust (also called a Miller Trust), an irrevocable trust funded with the income above the cap each month and established before eligibility can begin.4 The countable-asset limit is $2,000 for a single applicant. When one spouse needs care, federal spousal-impoverishment rules let the at-home spouse keep a Community Spouse Resource Allowance, up to $162,660 in 2026, so the couple is not held to the single-person asset figure.4

How that coverage is delivered depends on the setting. For long-term care, nursing-facility coverage runs through the Institutional Care Program, while home- and community-based care runs through Statewide Medicaid Managed Care Long-Term Care (SMMC-LTC).3 The home- and community-based side is not an entitlement: enrollment is managed and can be waitlisted, so meeting the rules does not guarantee an immediate slot the way nursing-facility coverage does. A five-year look-back applies under federal Medicaid rules to assets given away for less than fair value, which can trigger a penalty period, so last-minute transfers to qualify often backfire.4

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 or adult family care home, but it does not cover the room-and-board portion of the bill the way it covers a nursing-facility stay; the member pays room and board from personal income.3 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 recovers from the estates of people who received long-term-care Medicaid at age 55 or older, but it does so through the probate estate only, and Florida's constitutional homestead protection shields the primary residence from a Medicaid claim in most cases.5 Recovery is also barred while a surviving spouse is alive and deferred while there is a surviving child under 21 or a surviving blind or permanently disabled child.5 A nursing-home resident on Medicaid keeps a small Personal Needs Allowance, $160 a month in Florida, and contributes most of their remaining income toward the cost of care.6

Medicare

A final note on Medicare, because the assumption is common: Medicare covers only short-term skilled rehabilitation after a qualifying hospital stay, not the long-term custodial care, the ongoing help with daily living, that most families are budgeting for. 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 often trigger penalties, and the Qualified Income Trust has to be in place before coverage can begin.

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 for a long-term-care screening and a referral to 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 tend to rise over time, so the figure you start with is rarely 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.

Learn More

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.