How to Pay for Senior Care in Georgia (2026)

Assisted living in Georgia runs about $5,300 a month, and a semi-private nursing home room about $8,821.1 Georgia costs less than the national median, but few families can carry that out of pocket for long. Paying for senior care here means combining what you have with what Medicare, Georgia Medicaid, and VA benefits will cover, in the right order.

This guide covers what care costs in 2026, what Medicare will and won't cover, how Georgia Medicaid pays for long-term care through nursing homes and the CCSP and SOURCE waivers, VA benefits for veterans, and where to get free help.

In This Guide

• Key Takeaways
• What Senior Care Costs in Georgia
• What Medicare Covers (and What It Doesn't)
• Georgia Medicaid for Long-Term Care
• Paying for Assisted Living in Georgia
• VA Aid and Attendance for Veterans
• Other Ways to Pay for Senior Care in Georgia
• Where to Get Free Help
• Frequently Asked Questions

What Senior Care Costs in Georgia

Before choosing how to pay, you need the price tag. The figures below come from the 2025 CareScout Cost of Care Survey, the standard industry benchmark, released March 2, 2026 from rates collected July through November 2025.1 Every annual figure rests on a usage assumption, and they are not the same one, so the assumption is named in each row: in-home care at 44 hours a week, adult day health care at 5 days a week, private duty nursing at just one hour a week, and nursing home care at 365 days.1

Georgia is below the national median in every category but one. Assisted living costs about $10,800 less per year than the national figure, and a semi-private nursing home room about $9,125 less.1 In-home care works out to about $32 an hour at the survey's 44-hour week, under the $35 national rate. The exception is private duty nursing in the home, where Georgia runs above national: about $98 an hour against a $90 national median, though Georgia's $135 per-visit rate sits below the $160 national one.1 Below the national median still means real money: at $8,821 a month, two years in a Georgia nursing home runs past $200,000.

What Medicare Covers (and What It Doesn't)

This is where families get surprised. Medicare does not pay for long-term custodial care, the day-to-day help with bathing, dressing, meals, and supervision that most senior care actually involves.

What Medicare does cover is skilled, time-limited care:

• Up to 100 days of skilled nursing facility care after a qualifying hospital stay, with the first 20 days fully covered and a daily copay after that.4
• Home health care (skilled nursing or therapy) when a doctor orders it and the patient is homebound.
• Hospice care for someone who is terminally ill.

What Medicare does not cover:

• Ongoing personal care at home
• Long-term nursing home stays once skilled care ends
• Assisted living or personal care homes
• Non-medical companion or homemaker services

For how Medicare works in Georgia, including Advantage plans, Medigap, and help paying premiums, see our Medicare plans and coverage guide for Georgia. Once skilled care runs out, families turn to Medicaid, VA benefits, or private funds.

Georgia Medicaid for Long-Term Care

Georgia Medicaid is the primary payer for long-term care in the state. Two points shape who gets it.

First, Georgia did not adopt Medicaid expansion. Adults generally qualify through a category, aged 65 or older, blind, or disabled, rather than on low income alone.2 Georgia's Pathways to Coverage demonstration adds a work-requirement pathway, but it is not full expansion.

Second, long-term care Medicaid runs through two different channels with very different rules.

Nursing Home (Institutional) Medicaid

Nursing facility Medicaid is both income-tested and asset-tested, and the income test carries a federal ceiling. For 2026, federal rules cap a state's long-term-care special income level at 300 percent of the SSI federal benefit rate, which works out to $2,982 a month, and the SSI resource standard for an individual is $2,000. A state may set its own limit at or below that ceiling, never above it.5 Georgia Medicaid, run by the Georgia Department of Community Health, applies its own income and resource limits, and says of long-term services and supports only that applicants must meet both limits and that those limits may be higher than the limits for other Medicaid programs.2 Ask DCH for the figure that applies to your parent before you plan around a number. When Medicaid pays for a nursing home, it covers room, board, and care together. The resident contributes nearly all monthly income toward the cost of care and keeps a small personal needs allowance.

Nursing home Medicaid is an entitlement. Every applicant who meets the financial and medical rules is covered, with no waitlist. For the full picture, read our Georgia Medicaid long-term care guide.

Home and Community-Based Waivers: CCSP and SOURCE

Most families would rather keep a parent at home. Georgia's Elderly and Disabled Waiver Program does that through two waivers, both run by the Department of Community Health:

• The Community Care Services Program (CCSP) covers case management, personal care, adult day health, home-delivered meals, alternative living services, and caregiver respite.2
• The SOURCE waiver (Service Options Using Resources in Community Environments) delivers similar services with care coordination tied to the member's primary care physician.2

Both require a nursing facility level of care, meaning the person's needs would otherwise justify a nursing home. Unlike nursing home Medicaid, the waivers are not entitlements. They have a limited number of enrollment slots, so when slots are full, new applicants go on a waitlist.2 Getting into a nursing home on Medicaid can be easier than getting the services that would let someone stay home.

While a waiver slot is pending, families usually bridge the gap by paying for home care privately, leaning on family caregiving, or, if the need is urgent, moving into a nursing home on institutional Medicaid, which has no waitlist.2

Read the deeper guides on the CCSP waiver and the SOURCE waiver, and check the rules in our Georgia Medicaid eligibility and income limits guide.

Paying for Assisted Living in Georgia

Assisted living is where the room-and-board rule trips people up. Georgia Medicaid does not pay for room and board in an assisted living community or personal care home.6 The CCSP and SOURCE waivers cover the care services delivered in those settings, but not the rent, meals, and lodging itself.

So a waiver participant living in a licensed personal care home pays the facility a room-and-board amount out of their own income, often from a Supplemental Security Income (SSI) check. The Georgia Department of Human Services Division of Aging Services sets that standard rate; confirm the current figure with your care coordinator or the Division of Aging Services.6

That makes the math for assisted living look like this for a Medicaid-eligible person: the waiver covers the care, the resident's own income covers room and board. For someone not on Medicaid, the full $5,300-a-month average comes out of private funds, VA benefits, or long-term care insurance.1

VA Aid and Attendance for Veterans

If your parent is a wartime veteran or the surviving spouse of one, VA Aid and Attendance can be a major funding source. It is an increased monthly amount added to the VA basic pension for people who need help with daily activities or are housebound.3

For the rate year running December 1, 2025 through November 30, 2026, the maximum monthly benefit is:

• $2,424 for a veteran with no dependents3
• $2,874 for a veteran with one dependent3
• A lower amount for a surviving spouse

To qualify, the applicant must meet wartime service, care-need, income, and net-worth tests. The 2026 net-worth limit is $163,699, and the VA applies a 3-year look-back on asset transfers.3 The money can pay for any setting of care: home care, assisted living, or a nursing home.

An accredited Veterans Service Officer will help you apply for free, and the VA never charges to file a claim.3 Be skeptical of anyone who charges a fee to "get you approved."

Other Ways to Pay for Senior Care in Georgia

When government programs and insurance don't cover everything, families layer in private funds. A few options, with the cautions that come with each:

• Long-term care insurance. If your parent bought a policy years ago, now is when it pays off; these policies typically cover home care, assisted living, and nursing home care up to a daily or monthly limit. Dig out the policy and read the benefit triggers and elimination period before you need them. New policies bought after 65 are expensive and harder to qualify for, so this is mainly a tool for people who planned ahead.
• Home equity and reverse mortgages. A homeowner can convert home equity to cash through a reverse mortgage. A federally insured reverse mortgage (a HUD Home Equity Conversion Mortgage) requires a session with a HUD-approved housing counselor before you can close. It can fund home care or assisted living, but it interacts with Medicaid asset rules, so get counseling and advice before borrowing.
• Life insurance. Some policies allow an accelerated death benefit if the holder needs long-term care, or can be sold in a life settlement for a lump sum.
• Family and community resources. Georgia's Aging and Disability Resource Connection and local Area Agencies on Aging can point you to subsidized programs.

Some families also use legal Medicaid planning to qualify while protecting assets. That is detailed work, subject to Medicaid's 60-month (five-year) look-back on transfers,7 so talk to a Georgia elder law attorney before moving money. The State Bar of Georgia's Lawyer Referral Service can connect you with an elder-law attorney. Our Georgia Medicaid asset spend-down guide covers the rules.

Where to Get Free Help

You do not have to sort this out alone, and you should not pay a broker to do it. GeorgiaCares, the state's Health Insurance Assistance Program, gives free, unbiased counseling on Medicare, comparing plans, applying for programs that lower costs, and questions about paying for care and long-term care insurance.8 GeorgiaCares is not affiliated with any insurer and does not sell insurance.

Call GeorgiaCares at 1-866-552-4464 and select option 4.8

Learn More

Find personalized help paying for senior care in 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.