The total settlement of the national health insurance coming year would be increased to NT$443 billion (US$13 billion), the National Health Insurance Medical Expenditure Negotiation Committee announced recently -- a hike of 4.55 percent from existing year's amount.

The settlement is the upper most limits for payments paid by the Bureau of National Health Insurance to medical institutions. The committee finalized the amount in discussions with medical staff, taxpayers, experts and other government officials last weekend, according to the committee's press release on Saturday.

According to the Executive Yuan's regulations, the settlement could be raised by a maximum of 5.10 percent almost every year.