Caregiving Costs Jump 60% in Five Years, AARP Finds

What happened

Family caregivers in the United States now spend an average of $11,508 a year out of their own pockets, according to a new study from AARP released Wednesday. That is roughly 60% more than five years ago, and it eats up 31% of a caregiver's income on average.

The jump is more than twice the overall inflation rate of 24% over the same period, as measured by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index. The study surveyed 2,538 family caregivers, people helping disabled, chronically ill or elderly adults. Food, housing and medical expenses make up the biggest share of the increase.

"The more care that's needed, the more it costs," said Megan O'Reilly, AARP's vice president of governmental affairs. Caregivers are also taking on more complicated medical tasks at home, the study found.

Why it matters

The money is only half the squeeze. Caregiving often forces people to cut their working hours or quit work entirely, so higher costs land on top of lost income. About half of family caregivers say they have made major financial sacrifices, the report found, from working more hours to cutting savings or drawing down retirement money.

Meghan Maher lived that math. Seven weeks after her first child was born, her mother was diagnosed with advanced cancer, leaving Maher caring for a newborn and a sick parent at the same time. She cut back to part time, then quit her career in cancer research altogether. Her family's income fell by half.

After her mother's death in 2017, her father suffered major complications from abdominal surgery and was critically ill for months. Maher stayed by his side in hospital, and the family paid about $10,000 a year for child care on top of everything else. She later became a death doula, work she can schedule around her father's needs, but her income is half what it was in her old career.

The scale is enormous. About 63 million Americans now provide ongoing help for a family member or friend, roughly 1 in 4 adults. An estimated 70% of people turning 65 today will need some form of help as they age, so the pressure is set to grow, not shrink. The [cost-of-living strain facing US workers](/article/cost-of-living-strain-us-workers-midterm-elections) is already a defining issue of this election season, and caregiving costs are a large, often invisible part of it.

What it means for the US

Medicare does not pay for routine help at home or in a facility, and that care is expensive. In 2025, 40 hours of in-home help a week cost about $72,792 a year, according to insurer Genworth's annual survey. A shared room in a skilled nursing facility averaged $115,000 a year.

Public help exists, but it is patchy and hard to reach. All states pay some family caregivers through Medicaid; in California, more than 800,000 caregivers earn between $16.90 and $25 an hour for in-home work. Those funds are likely to shrink under the budget bill that cut nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid over the next decade, NPR reported. Veterans' benefits can also help, but the rules are complex, and many families hire advocates just to apply.

For US households, that means caregiving costs land directly on family budgets, retirement savings and work decisions, with little of the safety net that covers hospital care. AARP executive vice president Nancy LeaMond said the sheer number of people paying these sums should push the issue into the legislative arena.

What happens next

Congress has several proposals on the table. One would let caregivers spend money from tax-sheltered health savings accounts on their parents' medical expenses. Six states already offer tax credits to family caregivers, usually between $1,000 and $5,000 a year, for costs like retrofitting a home with grab bars, and two senators introduced a bipartisan bill last year for a similar $5,000 national credit.

Fourteen states and Washington, D.C. now require most employers to offer paid family and medical leave, including time off to care for a relative. Another bill in Congress would create a national version, up to 12 weeks of partly paid leave, while a third would protect the Social Security benefits of people who stop working to care full time. How far any of them get is a question for the next Congress, and one voters will be watching in the [2026 midterms](/article/us-midterm-elections-2026-explained).