Cost of Senior Care in Georgia (2026)

If you're trying to work out how you'll pay for a parent's care in Georgia, the first thing you need is a real number. Here it is: assisted living in Georgia runs about $5,300 a month and a semi-private nursing-home room about $105,850 a year, both below the national median for the same care.1 Those figures are a starting point, not a quote, and the bills add up fast, so the setting a family chooses can swing the yearly cost by tens of thousands of dollars.

This guide lays out what every senior-care setting in Georgia costs side by side, why the same figure differs from one survey to the next, what pushes the price up or down, and how families actually pay, from private funds to Medicaid for those who qualify.

In This Guide

• Key Takeaways
• The Cost of Senior Care in Georgia by Setting
• What Drives the Cost of Senior Care in Georgia
• How Families Pay for Senior Care in Georgia
• How to Plan and Budget
• Frequently Asked Questions

The Cost of Senior Care in Georgia by Setting

Most of the figures below come from the CareScout (Genworth) Cost of Care Survey.1 Two things make the numbers hard to pin down. First, even one survey can disagree with itself: CareScout's ranked data tables and its own March 2, 2026 Georgia release give two different annual assisted-living figures for the state.3 Second, the categories move: CareScout's most recent release is its 2025 survey (published March 2, 2026, from rates collected July through November 2025), and it carries Georgia state medians, but it replaced the separate homemaker and home health aide lines with a single non-medical caregiver rate and added private duty nursing.2 Every Georgia cost figure here is from that 2025 survey, which does not price memory care, and the Medicaid limits come from Georgia's DFCS manual.1,3,4 A number elsewhere that still splits homemaker from home health aide is 2024 data.

These are survey medians, not government rates or maximums, so any one provider can cost more or less. Read across the settings and Georgia comes in below the national figure in every category except in-home private duty nursing, whose hourly rate runs above national, and that makes it a comparatively affordable state for senior care.1 The gaps between settings still matter, though: a semi-private nursing-home room costs about two-thirds more than assisted living, so matching the setting to the actual level of need is where the real savings come from.

Every annual figure in that table is a survey basis, not a bill, and the bases are not the same from row to row. The non-medical caregiver figure of about $73,216 a year assumes 44 hours of care a week for 52 weeks at Georgia's median $32 an hour, so a family buying 12 hours a week pays a fraction of it.1 The private duty nurse figure is the one most likely to mislead: about $5,096 a year sounds cheap next to in-home caregiving, but it assumes only one hour a week, because the underlying Georgia rates are about $98 an hour or $135 a visit.1 Adult day health care at about $23,400 a year assumes 5 days a week for 52 weeks (about $90 a day), and both nursing-home figures assume 365 days of care.1

A note on the in-home line, because the categories changed. Through the 2024 survey, CareScout reported two separate Georgia in-home figures, a homemaker who handled household tasks and a home health aide who could give hands-on personal care. In its 2025 survey it merged them into a single "non-medical caregiver" line, about $32 an hour in Georgia against $35 nationally, and added private duty nursing as its own category.1,2 Adult day health care, which provides supervised daytime care while a family caregiver works, remains the lowest-cost full-day option at about $23,400 a year in Georgia.1 Round-the-clock home care costs far more, because the hours multiply quickly, which is why heavy daily needs often tip the math toward a facility even where the home is the preference.

Costs also vary inside Georgia. CareScout collects rates by metropolitan area and cautions that a particular provider's cost may differ significantly from the median for similar providers in the same location.1 Even the statewide figure isn't one exact number: CareScout's own Georgia release puts assisted living at $60,600 a year, below its data tables' $63,600, so treat the 2025 median as roughly $60,600 to $63,600.1 Confirm the rate for the specific community you're considering.

What Drives the Cost of Senior Care in Georgia

The single biggest driver of cost is the level of care a person needs. A nursing home can provide skilled nursing care, care only professionals or technical personnel can safely give or supervise, plus the building, equipment, and oversight it requires, which helps explain why a semi-private room runs about $105,850 a year in Georgia at 365 days of care.6,1 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, about $63,600 a year.1 The yearly gap between the two settings is wide, with a nursing home running about two-thirds more, and it tracks that difference in the level of care.1

Memory care is a specialized form of assisted living for people with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, and a resident pays for the room and may need to pay extra for the special care.7 CareScout's 2025 survey doesn't price memory care, so it gives no Georgia memory-care median, and its $5,300 assisted-living median is not a memory-care rate.3 Compare a community's memory-care price with its own assisted-living rate.

In-home care occupies the middle. A non-medical caregiver in Georgia runs about $32 an hour, which stays affordable for a few hours of daily help but, because it's billed by the hour, climbs quickly as the hours grow: the survey's 44-hour week already comes to about $73,216 a year, above assisted living's $63,600, and continuous coverage passes the cost of a facility.1 Skilled nursing in the home is priced differently: about $98 an hour in Georgia, above the $90 national median, or $135 a visit, below the $160 national median.1 Adult day health care, at about $23,400 a year for 5 days a week, can stretch a budget when a family caregiver is available evenings and weekends.1

Within any single setting, the advertised rate is rarely the whole bill. CareScout cautions that actual expenses vary with individual care needs, so confirm what a community's quote includes.1 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 Families Pay for Senior Care in Georgia

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, and few make that shift from a position of calm. The decision usually arrives mid-crisis, after a fall or a hospital stay, when money and caregiving have to be sorted out at the same time. Knowing how the options fit together ahead of that moment is worth a great deal. Here's how the main ones work in Georgia.

Private pay is savings, income, the proceeds of a home sale, and long-term care insurance if a person bought it. It's the most flexible option, since it covers any setting, but it's also the one that runs out, and at about $105,850 a year for a nursing home or about $73,216 for a non-medical caregiver at 44 hours a week, 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.

Georgia 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.4 For institutional, or nursing-facility, Medicaid, Georgia publishes its own dollar limits in the Division of Family and Children Services Medicaid Policy Manual, Appendix A1, effective July 2026: for living arrangement D, the class Georgia uses for a person in a nursing home, a Medicaid Cap of $2,982 a month for an individual and $5,964 for a couple (used only when both spouses receive long-term care together; otherwise each spouse is tested alone), and a countable-resource limit of $2,000 for an individual and $3,000 for a couple.4 Three details decide real cases. First, Georgia compares the applicant's gross countable monthly income to the cap, without taking income deductions first, and the $2,982 matches the 300% income cap CMS lists for 2026.4 Second, income at or above the cap doesn't end the conversation, but the two routes past it differ. A Qualified Income Trust, or Miller trust, shelters income from the cap test and is the route Georgia's manual describes for having Medicaid pay the nursing home; it must contain only the applicant's income and no other assets, be irrevocable and set up in Georgia, and leave what remains at death to Georgia's Department of Community Health, up to what Medicaid spent on care. It can't be backdated; it counts from the month all required parties sign it.4 Without one, Georgia budgets the applicant as ABD Medically Needy, and then Medicaid will not cover the vendor payment to the nursing home.4 Third, if one spouse stays at home, $2,000 is the wrong number to plan against: Georgia's spousal-impoverishment row puts that couple's countable-resource figure at $164,660.4 Georgia adds that these limits "may be higher than the limits for other Medicaid programs," and that functional status, age, citizenship, medical needs and Georgia residency are weighed too.4 A nursing-home resident on Medicaid contributes nearly all of their monthly income toward the cost of care while keeping a small personal needs allowance.5 The aged, blind and disabled categories are not the only door into Georgia Medicaid. The state also runs Right from the Start Medical Assistance, a postpartum coverage extension, Planning for Healthy Babies, and Georgia Pathways to Coverage, so a younger adult in the family shouldn't read the long-term-care rules as a verdict on their own eligibility.4

If a nursing home isn't the right fit, Georgia funds home and community-based care through the Elderly and Disabled Waiver Program, delivered as the Community Care Services Program (CCSP) and Service Options Using Resources in Community Environments (SOURCE).4 Both require a nursing-facility level of care and cover services like case management, personal care, adult day care, home-delivered meals, and caregiver respite so a person can be served at home instead of in a nursing home.4 The waiver's income test is the same $2,982 Medicaid Cap, applied the same way, with the Miller-trust route available at or above it.4 Waiver enrollment can be capped: federal rules require a state to set the number of people it intends to serve each waiver year, make that number a limit on the waiver's size, and contemplate a list of people waiting to enroll. So a family counting on CCSP or SOURCE should apply early and ask about any wait when they apply.4 Two more rules shape long-term-care planning. Assets given away or sold for less than fair value in the 60 months before applying can trigger a penalty period during which Medicaid won't pay for long-term care, and Georgia computes that penalty the way federal law prescribes.8,9 And Georgia recovers Medicaid costs from the estates of members who got nursing-facility or home- and community-based care at 55 or older, or were nursing-facility inpatients at any age, waiting while a spouse, a child under 21, or a blind or disabled child survives, and it waives any claim against the first $25,000 of an estate.10

One gap trips up many families: Medicaid covers services, not the room and board in assisted living. Georgia's CCSP and SOURCE waivers pay for care in an assisted living community or personal care home, but federal law bars Medicaid from paying for the room, meals, and lodging, which nursing-facility Medicaid does cover.5 A waiver participant pays the facility's room-and-board amount from their own income, so plan to cover it privately and confirm the current amount with the CCSP or SOURCE care coordinator.5

A note on Medicare, because the assumption is common: Medicare covers skilled care, such as a Medicare-certified skilled nursing facility stay or home health, but not custodial care (help with bathing, dressing, and other daily activities) when that's the only care a person needs.6 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. Because a semi-private room in a Georgia nursing home costs about two-thirds more than assisted living, the difference between the right setting and an over-built one can be tens of thousands of dollars a year.1 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, a few hours a day of in-home care, or adult day care, while someone needing continuous skilled care may find a nursing home costs no more than full-time help at home.

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 a home- and community-based waiver is part of the plan, apply early, because federal rules make the number of people a state says a waiver will serve each year a limit on its size, and contemplate a list of people waiting to enroll.4 If Medicaid is likely to be part of the plan at all, the look-back and estate-recovery rules reward starting early and getting advice, because transfers for less than fair value can trigger a penalty.8 Two Brevy guides go deeper here: Medicaid Planning Strategies walks through how to position assets and income within the rules, and Medicaid Personal Needs Allowance, Explained covers the small monthly amount a resident keeps.

You don't have to sort this out alone. Two Georgia resources are built for exactly this moment. Applications for CCSP and SOURCE go through the Georgia Aging and Disability Resource Connection (ADRC), which has 12 offices organized by the counties they serve, so that's the place to start on the waiver.11 And for Medicare and the programs that lower its out-of-pocket costs, Georgia SHIP, also known as GeorgiaCares, provides free, unbiased counseling and sells nothing; reach a certified counselor at 1-866-552-4464 (select option 4), Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.12

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 Georgia 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.