Working out how to pay for assisted living in New Hampshire starts with one rule: a New Hampshire Medicaid waiver pays for services, not a resident's rent and meals.

That's because federal Medicaid rules make no federal financial participation available for room and board outside narrow exceptions, and it shapes every plan below. Assisted living in New Hampshire has a 2025 median cost of $96,300 a year, or $8,025 a month, in CareScout's Cost of Care Survey, so most families start with income and savings, then add a long-term care policy or VA benefits if a parent has them. For a parent who qualifies on both money and care needs, New Hampshire Medicaid's Choices for Independence (CFI) waiver is the route into services paid for in the residence., This guide takes each payer in turn, so you can see which ones fit your family and what to do next.

In This Guide

What Assisted Living Costs in New Hampshire

It helps to know the number you're planning against, even when that number is hard to look at. In CareScout's 2025 Cost of Care Survey, fielded July through November 2025 and released March 2, 2026, the median cost of assisted living in New Hampshire was $96,300 a year, or $8,025 a month, against a national median of $74,400 a year.

In CareScout's 2025 survey, New Hampshire runs well above the national medians in every care setting reported for the state except adult day health care, where New Hampshire's 2025 median of $24,180 a year sits slightly below the $24,700 national median.

Care setting New Hampshire median National median
Assisted living community $96,300 a year ($8,025 a month) $74,400 a year ($6,200 a month)
Nursing home, semi-private room $146,913 a year ($12,243 a month) $114,975 a year
Nursing home, private room $161,330 a year ($13,444 a month) $129,575 a year
Non-medical caregiver at home $91,520 a year ($40 an hour) $80,080 a year ($35 an hour)
Adult day health care $24,180 a year ($2,015 a month) $24,700 a year

CareScout's figures are industry-survey medians, not government rates, and New Hampshire assisted living costs vary widely within the state and rise as a resident's care needs grow. When you ask a residence for its price, ask it to separate the base monthly charge from any care-level fees, because the payers below treat those two parts very differently.

How New Hampshire Licenses Assisted Living

In New Hampshire, assisted living is licensed as an Assisted Living Residence-Residential Care under administrative rule He-P 804, and a separate, higher-acuity residential category, the Supported Residential Health Care Facility, sits at He-P 805. He-P 804 and He-P 805 both rest on New Hampshire RSA chapter 151, which requires a license for a residential care facility offering services beyond room and board to two or more people, and exempts a facility that provides only room and board.

The license category matters for the money, too. On a tour, ask which category the residence holds and what happens if your parent's care needs grow beyond what it provides, because a move later means a new base rate and new funding questions.

Paying Privately, and Why Medicare Won't Cover the Bill

Many families are surprised, and a little angry, to learn that Medicare won't pick up this cost. Medicare Part A and Part B don't pay the room-and-board or custodial-care costs of an assisted living facility, meaning the help with bathing, dressing, and eating that most assisted living provides, and a Medigap policy doesn't fill that gap. A Medicare-covered medical service doesn't stop being covered because your parent lives in assisted living; what Medicare won't pay is the facility's own room-and-board and personal-care charge.

So most New Hampshire families start with private money:

  • Income: Social Security, a pension, and retirement-account withdrawals are the steady base.
  • Savings and investments, drawn down on a schedule you write out in advance, so you know roughly which month they would run low against New Hampshire's 2025 assisted living median of $8,025 a month in CareScout's survey.
  • The family home, sold or rented once no one is living in it. If New Hampshire Medicaid may be needed later, get advice on timing first, because how the proceeds are held can affect eligibility.

That written timeline matters more than it seems. Knowing the month when savings would run short is what lets you apply for the programs below before a crisis, not during one.

Long-Term Care Insurance and VA Benefits

These two payers can make a real difference, and families often forget to check either one.

Long-term care insurance. If your parent bought a long-term care policy years ago, find it now, even if no one has looked at it in a decade. Medicare.gov names private long-term care insurance, alongside Medicaid and paying privately, as a way to pay for the long-term care Medicare doesn't cover. Read the policy for three things: what triggers benefits, how long the waiting period is before it pays, and whether an assisted living residence is a covered setting. Our national guide to how to pay for assisted living walks through how these policies work.

A policy can also matter for New Hampshire Medicaid later. Under New Hampshire rule He-W 856.06, the resource limit for applicants for Medicaid long-term care services is $2,500 plus the value of coverage provided in a conforming long-term care insurance policy. Ask the insurer whether your parent's policy is a conforming policy under New Hampshire's rules before you rely on that protection.

VA benefits. If your father or his late wife served, check this before you rule it out. Veterans and surviving spouses may qualify for VA Aid and Attendance, and our guide to VA Aid and Attendance for assisted living in New Hampshire explains who qualifies and how to file. A VA-accredited representative can help your family with the claim.

One practical point applies to every payer here: before anyone moves money to qualify for a program, get advice first. New Hampshire Medicaid looks back 60 months at transfers for less than fair market value, as the Medicaid numbers section below explains, and a move made for one program can cause problems with another.

Does New Hampshire Medicaid Pay for Assisted Living? The CFI Waiver

This is the question most families arrive with, and the honest answer is "partly." It's better to learn that now than the month savings run out.

What New Hampshire Medicaid pays, and what it doesn't

Assisted living in New Hampshire is largely private-pay, and the reason is federal: federal Medicaid rules make no federal financial participation available for the cost of room and board except in narrow cases such as respite care in a State-approved facility that is not a private residence, so a New Hampshire home and community-based waiver pays for services rather than a resident's rent and meals. In practice, your parent's monthly bill splits in two: New Hampshire Medicaid may cover the services, and the room-and-board charge stays with your family. That's why the question to ask every residence is what its room and board costs on its own.

The Choices for Independence waiver has its own income-eligibility rule, New Hampshire rule He-W 858.06, separate from the nursing facility rule in He-W 858.05, but the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) applies the same 2026 income cap of $2,982 a month to CFI categorically needy services as to nursing facility care, as the next section shows.,

New Hampshire law lets CFI participants move into assisted living

New Hampshire RSA 151:2, IV requires the state's rules to let residential care and supported residential care facilities admit residents who have been determined eligible for nursing facility services under a Medicaid home and community-based care waiver for the elderly and chronically ill, and who are referred as an alternative to a nursing facility, provided the clinical services and supports the person requires can be provided or obtained in the facility. That proviso is the question to ask on the tour: can this residence meet your parent's care needs, and does it accept residents whose services CFI pays for?

Who qualifies

Your parent has to clear two tests, not one. The first is care needs: under New Hampshire RSA 151:2, IV, the residents this route covers are people determined eligible for nursing facility services under the waiver, so CFI is built for someone who would otherwise need a nursing home. The second is money, and the New Hampshire Medicaid numbers are in the next section.

We could not confirm from a current source whether the CFI waiver has a waiting list, so ask DHHS about availability before you count on a slot. For the full program detail, see our guides to New Hampshire Medicaid HCBS waivers and how to apply for New Hampshire Medicaid.

The 2026 New Hampshire Medicaid Numbers Your Parent Has to Fit

Income. Under New Hampshire rule He-W 858.05, the nursing facility cap is 300% of the maximum Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefit for an eligible individual. For 2026, New Hampshire DHHS sets the SSI maximum at $994 for an individual and the cap used for nursing facility, home and community-based services (HCBS), and HCBS-CFI categorically needy services at $2,982 a month. In 2026, a New Hampshire Medicaid applicant for nursing facility or CFI services whose monthly gross income is at or below $2,982 is income eligible as categorically needy.

Over the income cap. Income over New Hampshire Medicaid's $2,982 cap isn't automatically the end of the road. A New Hampshire applicant whose gross income exceeds the cap is income eligible as medically needy when their net income is at or below the monthly Medicaid nursing facility rate. Ask DHHS how the medically needy rules apply to CFI services in your parent's case.

Resources. New Hampshire rule He-W 856.06 sets the resource limit for all categories of medically needy Medicaid at $2,500 for a single individual and $4,000 for two, adding $100 for each additional person, and sets the limit for New Hampshire Medicaid long-term care applicants at $2,500 plus the value of coverage in a conforming long-term care insurance policy. New Hampshire rule He-W 856.07, effective September 20, 2025, adds that for adults 18 or older applying for or receiving nursing facility or CFI waiver services, a disregard is applied in the amount between the base resource standard for the group and $7,500. In plain words, for an adult applying for nursing facility or CFI services, New Hampshire Medicaid sets aside the gap between the group's base limit and $7,500 before it counts what is left, so the $2,500 figure alone can make a parent's savings ceiling look lower than it is. Because the rule names no single final ceiling, ask DHHS what your parent's countable limit is before anyone spends down or moves money. Watching a parent's savings shrink toward these limits is hard, and planning early gives your family more choices.

A spouse who stays home. For a married couple in 2026, New Hampshire Medicaid's community spouse resource allowance is at least $32,532 and at most $162,660. Our guide to New Hampshire spousal impoverishment rules explains how the protected amount is set.

What a nursing home resident keeps. If a nursing home comes later, as of 2026 New Hampshire DHHS's Medical Assistance Manual 619.01 directs the caseworker, when computing a Medicaid nursing facility resident's cost of care, to subtract either a $93 personal needs allowance or the VA $90 Nursing Facility Pension if the resident is entitled to it. New Hampshire law RSA 167:27-a, as amended effective January 1, 2026, has the commissioner adjust that personal needs allowance every year for cost-of-living increases that reflect Social Security increases. See our guide to the New Hampshire personal needs allowance.

Transfers and the estate. Under the federal Medicaid transfer rules New Hampshire applies to nursing facility services, an asset given away for less than fair market value is measured against a look-back date 60 months before the first date the person both is institutionalized and has applied for Medicaid. In plain words, a gift made in the five years before your parent enters a nursing facility and applies can make your parent ineligible for New Hampshire Medicaid nursing facility coverage for a period of months. For New Hampshire Medicaid estate recovery, RSA 167:14-a counts property the recipient held in joint tenancy with rights of survivorship or as a life estate, for interests established on or after July 1, 2005, as part of the recipient's estate, but the law may not be applied to violate the rules that prohibit recovery when the recipient is survived by a spouse, minor children, or disabled children. In plain words, a house your parent holds with you as joint tenants with right of survivorship, or holds as a life estate, where that interest was set up on or after July 1, 2005, can count toward New Hampshire Medicaid repayment after your parent dies, limited to your parent's ownership share, and New Hampshire law bars that recovery when your parent is survived by a spouse, a minor child, or a disabled child. Our guide to New Hampshire Medicaid estate recovery covers the details; talk with DHHS or an elder law attorney before moving money.

How to Pay for Assisted Living in New Hampshire: Putting It Together

No two families fit the same plan, and it's fine if yours takes a few tries to work out. Here is how the payers usually line up in New Hampshire, by situation.

  • Your parent has savings or a home. Private pay covers the early months. Write out how long the money lasts at New Hampshire's 2025 assisted living median of $8,025 a month in CareScout's survey, and learn New Hampshire Medicaid's 60-month look-back before you move assets.,
  • Your parent is a veteran or a veteran's surviving spouse. Look into VA Aid and Attendance early, using our New Hampshire Aid and Attendance guide for assisted living, and talk with a VA-accredited representative before your family moves any money.
  • Your parent holds a long-term care policy. Read its benefit trigger, waiting period, and daily limit now, and ask whether it is a conforming policy under New Hampshire Medicaid rule He-W 856.06.
  • Your parent has limited income and savings and needs nursing-home-level care. Ask DHHS about the CFI waiver, and ask each residence whether it accepts residents whose services CFI pays for, and what it charges for room and board alone.

Whichever row fits, the hardest step is usually the first phone call. Making it before savings run low gives you time to choose a residence on your own terms.

Your next step Ask New Hampshire DHHS about Choices for Independence waiver services in assisted living, ask each residence which license it holds and what room and board costs on its own, and talk with a VA-accredited representative about Aid and Attendance if your family includes a veteran.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does New Hampshire Medicaid pay for assisted living?

Partly. Federal Medicaid rules make no federal financial participation available for room and board outside narrow exceptions, so a New Hampshire Medicaid waiver such as Choices for Independence pays for services in an assisted living residence rather than the resident's rent and meals. New Hampshire RSA 151:2, IV lets residential care facilities admit residents found eligible for nursing facility services under the waiver, provided the facility can provide or obtain the care they need.

How much does assisted living cost in New Hampshire?

In CareScout's 2025 Cost of Care Survey, the median cost of assisted living in New Hampshire was $96,300 a year, or $8,025 a month, against a national median of $74,400 a year.

What is the 2026 New Hampshire Medicaid income limit for the CFI waiver?

For 2026, New Hampshire DHHS sets the cap used for nursing facility and Choices for Independence (CFI) categorically needy services at $2,982 a month, which is 300% of the $994 Supplemental Security Income (SSI) maximum. A New Hampshire Medicaid applicant at or below the $2,982 cap is income eligible as categorically needy; ask New Hampshire DHHS about the medically needy route if income is higher.

Does Medicare pay for assisted living in New Hampshire?

No. Medicare Part A and Part B don't pay the room-and-board or custodial-care costs of an assisted living facility, and a Medigap policy doesn't fill that gap, though a Medicare-covered medical service stays covered while your parent lives there.

Can VA Aid and Attendance help pay for assisted living in New Hampshire?

It can. Veterans and surviving spouses may qualify for VA Aid and Attendance; our New Hampshire Aid and Attendance guide for assisted living covers eligibility and how to apply.

Learn More

Care TypesHow to Pay for Assisted Living by StateHow to pay for assisted living by state: Medicaid programs, state help and room-and-board rules all differ. See real examples, then open your state's guide. Care TypesAssisted Living in New HampshireAssisted living in New Hampshire is largely private-pay and runs above the national median. How the state licenses it, what it costs, and who pays. Care TypesCost of Senior Care in New HampshireWhat senior care costs in New Hampshire in 2026, from assisted living to nursing homes and in-home care, why the state runs high, and how families pay. Care TypesAssisted Living vs. Nursing Home in New HampshireAssisted living vs. a nursing home in New Hampshire comes down to level of care and who pays. Compare the cost gap and what New Hampshire Medicaid covers. MedicaidNew Hampshire Medicaid Long-Term Care: Nursing Home and Home CareNew Hampshire Medicaid pays for long-term care in a nursing home or at home through the Choices for Independence waiver. See the 2026 income and asset limits. MedicaidYour Guide to New Hampshire Medicaid HCBS WaiversNew Hampshire Medicaid HCBS waivers pay for home care through the Choices for Independence (CFI) waiver. See who qualifies, what CFI covers, and how to apply. VA BenefitsVA Aid and Attendance for Assisted Living in New HampshireVA Aid and Attendance pays up to $2,874/month toward assisted living in New Hampshire. Learn who qualifies, how costs offset the benefit, and how to apply free. FinancialHow to Pay for Assisted LivingHow to pay for assisted living in 2026: what it costs and how private pay, Medicaid waivers, VA Aid and Attendance, and long-term care insurance each fit. Care TypesTypes of Senior Care: A Guide to Every OptionFrom a few hours of help at home to 24-hour nursing care: the types of senior care, what each costs in 2026, whether Medicare or Medicaid pays, and how to pick.

Find personalized help paying for assisted living in New Hampshire 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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