Standard insurance premiums will be increasing significantly again ? this year by 13.5 percent.

Even so, like last year, the increase is only about half of what actuaries recommended premiums rise to in order to cover the skyrocketing cost of health insurance.

However Finance Minister Paula Cox said she personally was doing her part to help decrease the cost of healthcare by staying healthy ? she now goes on the treadmill daily. ?One small step for Paula, one large step for Bermuda,? she and MPs joked last night. Breaking the news in the House of Assembly, Ms Cox said actuaries had actually recommended insurance premiums increase by 23.8 percent based on retrospective information.

However Government, like last year, considered that increase too radical to be absorbed by the community in one blow. Estimating that the fund is capable of absorbing a portion of last year?s costs, Ms Cox said, the decision was made to increase premiums by 13.5 percent instead ? and closely monitor the fund. ?We think that increase is prudent now in order to minimise future increases,? she said.

As Finance Minister, managing the cost of healthcare remains one of her greatest concerns, she said.

Costs are shooting through the roof worldwide thanks to new technologies, drugs, and greater utilisation of healthcare services.

At the hospital last year, overall inpatient costs decreased, she said ? however that decrease was more than offset by a ?disturbing? increase the in the amount of outpatient services which are being utilised.

The cost of using the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine at the hospital, she said, will be passed from the mutual reinsurance fund into standard insurance (insurance required by law).

Though Government does not want to refuse healthcare to those that want it, she said, the best way to help decrease costs is by living a healthier lifestyle ? and, therefore, using less healthcare services. ?We have to shift the paradigm from cure to prevention.?

Government is hoping the impending Health Summit will be ?a lightning rod for how we chart our way forward,? she said.

However Shadow Finance Minister Grant Gibbons voiced concerns that the Health Summit will be inadequate and the soon-to-be-formed Health Council will not be given the teeth it needs to control costs. Such increases in insurance premiums are adding stress to a nation already stressed out with by the cost of living, he said ? and, even so, Government?s method of increasing premiums by just half of what actuaries say is needed will not solve the problem.