Whether keeping your parent at home costs more or less than a senior-living community comes down to one number: how many hours of paid help they actually need. This works it out with you — plainly, no sales pitch.
A facility is one flat monthly rate for 24/7 room, meals, and care. Home care is billed by the hour — so it wins below a crossover point and loses above it. Set the three numbers to your parent's situation.
This is an estimate to help you think, not a quote and not financial advice. Home care also keeps their existing housing (no rent to a facility), but adds meals, some home-safety setup, and the coordination work that a facility bundles in.
The hours you pay for are the hours they can't be by themselves. Check what's true — it gives you an honest starting number for the calculator above.
If overnight or constant supervision is checked, home care means near-24/7 hours — which is where a facility usually becomes cheaper and safer. The calculator will show you that honestly.
Before you decide on either number, check these — any one can move it by thousands a month. You may qualify; none is a guarantee, and this isn't advice.
If your parent has a policy, many pay for care at home, not just a facility. This is the first thing to check — it can flip the whole comparison.
For wartime-era veterans (and some surviving spouses): a pension benefit that pays toward home care or assisted living — up to roughly $2,300/mo for a single veteran in 2026. Widely under-claimed.
When care is medically necessary, some of it can be paid with pre-tax HSA/FSA dollars. A physician documents the need.
If your parent qualifies for Medicaid, self-direction lets them direct their own care budget — including, in many cases, paying a family member or a trusted neighbor.
Note: Medicare does not pay for long-term custodial care — at home or in a facility. Don't count on it for either.
We're a member-owned care cooperative forming in Boulder. Here's what's real today — and, just as important, what isn't.
We'll help you estimate your parent's true hours and run the comparison on their actual numbers.
Help checking the LTC policy, the VA benefit, and HSA/LMN — where the money actually moves.
If the need is companionship and a few hours a day, an owned, local caregiver — private-pay, around $35/hr, coordinated. Boulder first.
The first 20 members in each ZIP code get an in-home monitoring unit installed at no cost — fall detection and gentle check-ins that add a safety net for the hours no one can be there. It watches and flags what matters early; it doesn't replace a person, but it can make being home feel far less precarious.
If your parent needs more care than one-on-one at home can affordably cover, there's a step between home and a facility: a small shared home — two or three elders, one caregiver, the cost split. Still a home, and owned by the people in it. Ask us if it might fit.
co-op.care is forming and informal — not a licensed 24/7 home-care agency. If your parent needs round-the-clock or dementia-level supervision, the right answer is a licensed agency or the right community, and we'll tell you so plainly. We'd rather lose the visit than let someone come home into a gap we can't safely fill.
co-op.care only ever earns on an actual hour of paid care — a 8–15% cooperative take, against an agency's 40–50%. And that rate isn't ours to set: it's voted on by the members. No fees for the tools, the card, the assessment, or this read. If we're not delivering care, we're not making money — which is exactly the incentive you want in the people helping you decide.
Four steps, in order. The first one decides the rest.
The decision isn't only about your parent's needs — it's about what you can sustain. Caring for someone you love quietly becomes a second job. co-op.care counts the caregiver as a member too, so this part is just for you.
The full assessment uses a validated caregiver-intensity measure and stays private to you; a high load means we reach out with support and respite, never a label. Clinical or cognitive questions about your parent belong with their doctor — a formal screen like a MoCA takes 10–15 minutes in the office.
The same questions we just walked through. No account, no cost. A person reads it, not a portal.
Your card is free — one login that keeps this read (and anything you do across co-op.care) in your own record. The tools never cost anything. We only ever earn on an actual hour of care.
We'll follow up with the full picture — including the funding lanes (LTC insurance, VA, HSA) that can move these numbers by thousands. co-op.care is forming in Boulder; we'll be clear about what we can help with and what needs a licensed provider.