Face the Facts USA: Health care costs rising faster than salaries

Each day in the 100 days leading up to Election Day, our website and Face the Facts USA will be partnering to bring you one exhaustively researched and vetted, non-partisan fact about a major issue facing our nation.

#15 FACT: Wellness takes a bigger budget bite

Health care spending per capita in the US increased 36 percent between 2000 and 2010, from $6,177 to $8,402 for every person in the country.

During the same period, inflation-adjusted pay went down approximately 6.4 percent, from $28,293 per capita in 2000 to $26,487 in 2010.

If wages per capita had gone up at the same rate as health care spending, they would have increased to $38,478, not slumped to $26,487.

Go to Face the Facts USA’s website