Late on a Tuesday afternoon, a woman named Tammy La Barbera sat in her mother's living room in New Jersey, watching the light shift across the walls. Her mother, Ada, was 90 years old and had been diagnosed with dementia five years earlier. In recent months, Ada's condition had deteriorated quickly enough that Tammy made a decision millions of American families eventually face: she quit her job as an event manager to become a full-time caregiver. "I don't have help here, and I know it's going to get worse," Tammy told CNN in 2023.
That single sentence captures something large and quiet that rarely makes headlines until it's already happening in someone's home. The cost of senior care in America is rising. Families like Tammy's are caught between the weight of that arithmetic and the absence of easy solutions. And for readers researching what this actually means for their own households whether they're planning for aging parents, preparing for their own future, or managing the dual responsibility of caring for loved ones and beloved pets the numbers deserve a closer look.
What $10,000 Per Month Actually Looks Like
The figure surfaces in different ways depending on which care option a family chooses. According to CareScout's Cost of Care Report, the 2025 national median for assisted living came to $6,200 per month. Add intermittent skilled nursing in the home at $90 per hour, or the $95 daily rate for adult day health care, and the monthly total for a household combining multiple care types can approach or exceed $10,000 before anyone has planned for it. These figures represent national medians; costs vary significantly by state, by metropolitan region, and by the level of support a person requires.
CNBC reported in May 2025 that about 1 in 7 Americans will spend at least $100,000 out of pocket for long-term care over their lifetimes. The average future cost of long-term care for someone turning 65 today is roughly $122,400, according to a report published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Urban Institute. But that average masks a wide range. Some people need care for many years, pushing lifetime costs well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars a sum the report's authors, Richard Johnson and Judith Dey, described as "out of reach for many Americans."
The numbers aren't abstractions. They represent specific choices: whether to stay in a family home, whether to relocate closer to adult children, whether to hire help, whether to reduce work hours, whether to apply for Medicaid. Each choice carries financial consequences that are hard to model without first understanding the baseline.
Why Costs Are Climbing
The aging of the Baby Boomer generation is the structural driver. CareScout notes that every day until 2030, 10,000 Baby Boomers turn 65. The U.S. population is aging faster than ever before, and people are living longer. Longer lives, combined with the increased likelihood of chronic conditions like dementia, Parkinson's, and complications from stroke, mean more years of potential need. The HHS-Urban report cited by CNBC found that 57% of Americans who turn 65 today will develop a disability serious enough to require long-term care.
Labor costs play a significant role. Care work whether provided by agency caregivers, skilled nurses, or staff in assisted living communities requires trained personnel, and the wages for that workforce have been increasing. CareScout's own data shows that non-medical caregiver hourly rates rose from $34 nationally in 2024 to $35 in 2025. Assisted living community median rates climbed from $5,900 per month in 2024 to $6,200 in 2025. The 5% year-over-year increase in assisted living costs reflects both rising labor expenses and continued demand for residential care options.
The supply side is under pressure too. As demand grows, the capacity of residential care facilities, home health agencies, and adult day programs hasn't kept pace in every region. Families in rural areas or states with fewer options sometimes face even higher costs or long waitlists.
Where Standard Coverage Falls Short
One of the most persistent misconceptions about long-term care is that health insurance will cover it. According to CNBC's reporting on the topic, health insurance generally doesn't cover long-term care services, and Medicare doesn't cover most long-term care expenses. These programs were designed for acute medical episodes hospital stays, skilled nursing following a hospitalization, or physician visits not for the sustained custodial or supervisory care that someone with dementia or advanced age might need for months or years.
Medicaid, which does cover long-term care for those who qualify financially, requires individuals to deplete most of their assets before becoming eligible. The qualification threshold varies by state, and the process of spending down assets while documenting eligibility can be lengthy and stressful for families already managing a health crisis.
Bridget Bearden, a research and development strategist at the Employee Benefit Research Institute, told CNBC that most Americans lack long-term care insurance. "It's pretty clear [workers] don't have that amount of savings in retirement, that amount of savings in their checking or savings accounts, and the majority don't have long-term care insurance," she said. That leaves a large gap between what care costs and what most households have set aside to pay for it.
What the Numbers Look Like Across Care Types
For readers trying to map out potential costs, here's a snapshot of the 2025 national median values reported by CareScout, drawn from their ongoing Cost of Care Survey which the organization has conducted for more than twenty years to help families and policymakers understand the financial landscape of aging:
| Type of Service | 2025 National Median | Year-over-Year Change |
|---|---|---|
| Non-Medical Caregiver (hourly) | $35 | +3% |
| Skilled Nursing in the Home (hourly) | $90 | N/A |
| Adult Day Health Care (daily) | $95 | -5% |
| Assisted Living Community (monthly) | $6,200 | +5% |
The variation matters. Adult day health care, which saw a modest 5% decrease, can be a cost-effective option for families who want to supplement family caregiving with structured daytime support. Assisted living communities, which rose 5%, represent a larger commitment but may include meals, medication management, and social programming that in-home care alone might not provide at the same total cost.
The Human Arithmetic Behind the Statistics
Behind every median figure is a decision that felt anything but median to the family making it. Tammy La Barbera's story illustrates the cascade. When her mother's dementia progressed, Tammy moved from part-time help to full-time presence. The shift required her to leave paid employment, which reduced the household's income while potentially increasing its expenses. This is a pattern that CNN's 2023 reporting on senior care costs described as caregivers "drowning" without adequate support.
The KFF's survey research on the affordability of long-term care and support services adds another layer. The findings, published in November 2023, document that millions of older adults in the U.S., as well as younger people with disabilities, require assistance with activities of daily living. That assistance may be provided in residential facilities like nursing homes or assisted living communities, or in people's homes by paid or unpaid caregivers. The survey's data underscores that the need is widespread and the cost burden falls unevenly across households with different savings, different family structures, and different access to insurance or community-based programs.
For families navigating this terrain, the challenge isn't just the size of the numbers it's the uncertainty. No one knows in advance exactly how long they'll need care, what type of care they'll need, or whether their health will allow them to stay in their preferred setting. That uncertainty makes planning feel futile to some households, even as advisors consistently argue that some planning is better than none.
What Households Can Do Now
Fidelity's long-term care planning guide frames the issue in terms of questions households should consider before there's an immediate need. That timing is significant. Financial advisors and geriatric care managers frequently observe that the best decisions about care settings, funding strategies, and family roles are made during calm periods not during a health crisis when the pressure to decide quickly can override thoughtful deliberation.
Among the practical starting points worth exploring:
- Understanding current median costs for the types of care most likely to be relevant, using tools like CareScout's Cost of Care Survey to adjust for specific geographic areas. The difference between national medians and local costs can be substantial.
- Reviewing existing insurance coverage to confirm what is and isn't covered, particularly the distinction between health insurance, Medicare, and long-term care insurance products.
- Having early conversations with family members about preferences, expectations, and the financial capacity of the household to contribute time, money, or both.
- Exploring hybrid financial products that combine elements of life insurance or annuity products with long-term care benefits, which some households find useful for balancing multiple financial goals.
- Consulting with a financial advisor who has experience with aging-related planning, to model different scenarios and understand the tradeoffs involved in self-funding, insuring, or relying on public programs.
None of these steps eliminates uncertainty, but they shift the nature of the conversation from reactive to proactive. Families who have discussed care preferences, cost estimates, and funding options in advance tend to report feeling more grounded when those decisions become urgent.
Why This Matters for DibbleDog Readers
DibbleDog's audience people interested in pet art, gifts, and animal products often includes individuals who are deeply engaged in the welfare of the animals in their lives. Many are also part of households that are simultaneously planning for two kinds of long-term care: the kind that supports an aging family member, and the kind that supports a pet whose needs may change as both the animal and its human companions grow older. The financial overlap is real. A household that has carefully modeled long-term care costs for a parent or for themselves is also a household better positioned to continue providing for the animal companions who depend on them.
The planning tools and frameworks available through organizations like KFF, CareScout, and Fidelity are designed for exactly this kind of household: people who want facts rather than panic, and who prefer to make decisions from a position of knowledge rather than crisis. The goal isn't to eliminate the emotional weight of these choices but to reduce the financial surprise that often accompanies them.
Where to Read Further
For readers who want to go deeper into the data, several primary sources offer detailed, regularly updated information:
- CareScout's Cost of Care Report provides interactive state-by-state cost estimates and inflation-adjusted projections across care types.
- KFF's survey findings on long-term care affordability offer detailed polling and research data on household experiences and attitudes.
- CNBC's coverage of long-term care cost challenges includes expert perspectives and practical context for households beginning to explore the topic.
- Fidelity's long-term care planning resources provide frameworks for thinking through funding options and insurance products.
The conversation about long-term care costs isn't a comfortable one to start. But households that engage with it early before a diagnosis, before a fall, before the 2 a.m. phone call often find that the effort was worth it. The numbers are large, but they're not unmanageable. Understanding them is the first step toward building a plan that protects both the people and the animals a family loves.