R.I. health care spending skyrocketed after COVID. Now it’s coming back down to Earth.

The nearly $9 billion price tag associated with health care spending in Rhode Island in 2022 marks a 1.6% per-person jump over 2021.

That’s half the rate of increase in the prior year, and safely below the 3.2% benchmark set by a state panel focused on tracking health care costs, according to a report published Monday by the Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner.