Turn a list of future medical needs into a defensible dollar figure. Enter each cost item (today's annual cost, when it starts, how long it lasts, or "lifetime"), a medical inflation rate and a discount rate. The calculator grows each cost at medical inflation, discounts it back to today, and gives you per-item and total nominal and present-value figures, a year-by-year schedule, a sensitivity table across discount rates of 0 to 6 percent, and a paragraph you can paste into a demand letter or mediation statement. Built for plaintiff and defense attorneys, paralegals, legal nurse consultants and life care planners who need a first-pass number before retaining a forensic economist.
Per item
Year-by-year schedule
Sensitivity to the discount rate
Same cost items and inflation rate; only the discount rate changes. The row matching your chosen rate is highlighted.
How to use the result
Present value is the number you claim. It is the lump sum that, invested today at the discount rate, would pay each future bill as it comes due. Nominal totals are useful for context but are not the damages figure.
Anchor the rates in a source. The defaults are cited below. If opposing counsel's economist uses a different pair, run the sensitivity table and show the range rather than a single point.
Watch the net discount rate. What drives the result is the gap between the discount rate and medical inflation. Some jurisdictions apply a "total offset" rule (net rate = 0) or a fixed statutory rate; check local law before relying on market rates.
Lifetime items. "To life expectancy" runs the cost for the CDC expected remaining years at the patient's age, the convention most life care plans use. "Survival-weighted" multiplies each year's cost by the probability of being alive that year, which is lower early on but extends past life expectancy. State which you used.
Reduced life expectancy. If the injury itself shortens life expectancy, the general-population table overstates the horizon; a physician or life care planner should supply a case-specific figure, which you can enter as a fixed duration instead of "lifetime".
Use this to screen, then retain. For trial, a forensic economist will apply jurisdiction-specific discounting rules, growth rates by cost category and a formal life table. This tool gets you to a credible range for the demand and mediation.
Formulas
C = annual cost in today's dollars (one item)
i = medical inflation rate, d = discount rate (decimals)
k = years from today (k = 0 is the current year; neither inflated nor discounted)
Nominal cost in year k: N_k = C × (1 + i)^k
Present value of year k: PV_k = N_k ÷ (1 + d)^k = C × ((1 + i) ÷ (1 + d))^k
Item total: PV = Σ PV_k over k = start … start + duration − 1
Survival-weighted (lifetime): PV_k is multiplied by S_k = l(age + k) ÷ l(age) from the life table
Net discount rate (shown): r_net = (d − i) ÷ (1 + i)
Need the whole damages picture?
MedLegal AI's Damages Calculator and Settlement Evaluator put future medical costs next to lost earnings, household services, non-economic damages and comparable outcomes, and export a dated PDF for the demand package. Free with a MedLegal AI account.
Sources and method
Medical inflation default (2.8%). Compound annual growth of the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, Medical Care (U.S. city average), September 2006 (339.100) to September 2026 (593.666), computed from the BLS series as published on FRED (CPIMEDSL). Quick-pick alternatives: +1.5% is the 12-month change to September 2026 from the BLS CPI release of 14 Oct 2026 (bls.gov); 2.4% is the 10-year average (Sept 2016 to Sept 2026).
Discount rate default (5.0%). Market yield on U.S. Treasury securities at 10-year constant maturity, 5.00% on 23 October 2026, Federal Reserve H.15 release as published on FRED (DGS10). Quick-picks include the 0% total-offset convention and 2% as an illustrative real-rate approach.
Life expectancy and survival probabilities. National Center for Health Statistics, United States Life Tables, 2023, National Vital Statistics Reports Vol. 74 No. 6 (July 2025), Tables 1 to 3 (total population, males, females), columns lx and ex by single year of age. Report: nvsr74-06.pdf; data: Table02.xlsx (males), Table03.xlsx (females). Ages are whole years; age 100 is treated as the final year.
Method. Annual compounding, end-of-year-free convention (the current year is year 0 and is neither inflated nor discounted). All items share one inflation and one discount rate. The sensitivity table re-runs the full calculation at 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 percent plus your entered rate. Nothing you enter leaves your browser except an anonymous usage count.
Not legal or financial advice. Verify with a qualified economist or life care planner. MedLegal AI.