Imagine spending 40 years building a retirement nest egg, only to discover that your spouse needs full-time nursing home care costing more than $100,000 annually. Suddenly, the money you expected to cover vacations, groceries, and everyday expenses may have to support two very different living arrangements. According to CareScout’s 2025 Cost of Care Survey, the national median cost of a private nursing home room reached $129,575 annually, while a semi-private room averaged $114,975. Those numbers can make even financially comfortable retirees wonder whether they’ll lose everything they’ve saved.
Fortunately, federal Medicaid protections exist to help prevent one spouse’s nursing home expenses from leaving the other impoverished. However, understanding how nursing home costs and retirement savings interact is essential before making expensive financial decisions.
