The Island’s rising cost of healthcare “may present challenges with respect to sustainability and affordability”, according to the latest National Health Accounts Report.However, Health Minister Zane DeSilva said Government was nonetheless in a good position to rein in costs through the National Health Plan.“We can’t let our health costs continue to rise by eight or ten percent a year,” he warned.The surge in costs has been a consistent refrain in the annual financial reports, published since 2010.The figures released yesterday by the Bermuda Health Council (BHeC) show the Island’s health spending will soar to $1.7 billion by 2021, or $29,500 per capita. The figures were said to be “high by international standards” and at a level which “may not be sustainable”.The report showed residents spent $679 million on healthcare for the 2010/11 financial year. The spending represented 11.8 percent of gross domestic product, or more than $10,000 per person.In spite of the economic downturn, health expenditure showed “resilience”, increasing by 8.6 percent.This presents a “significant challenge to Bermuda’s low-income individuals and families”, the BHeC’s third National Health Accounts Report concludes.Hospitals were the top cost in the public sector. Bermuda Hospitals Board spent $294 million, or 43 percent of total health spending. Hospitals took in $254 million the previous year.Also in keeping with trends of recent years, overseas medical care came top for private health spending amounting to $96.6 million or 14 percent of total health spending.The private sector contributed $463.1 million of financing or 68 percent; 32 percent, or $215.9 million, was provided by the public sector.Mr DeSilva said key details of the National Health Plan would emerge later this year as task groups finish their work. The plan, which aims to deliver universal healthcare, is to be implemented in 2014.Asked if Government was able to manage rising costs, the Minister said that recent developments such as legislation improving access to generic drugs, and the upcoming August 1 ban on upfront payments for the full cost of a visit to the doctor or dentist, were “all part of the National Health Plan” along with health and exercise awareness initiatives.No comment was offered on Bermuda Hospitals Board chief of staff Donald Thomas’s administrative leave.“That matter is under review by the board,” Mr DeSilva said. “However, the BHB will have something to say on that matter very soon.”Useful website: www.bheb.bm.