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to pay more for health insurance and pension benefits. Walker contends the moves were necessary to help balance a state budget shortfall of $3.6 billion.
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Fidelity: Retired couple needs $240,000 for health costs, up 4 percent from 2011 estimate
• BOSTON (AP) -- Couples retiring this year can expect their medical bills throughout retirement to cost 4 percent more than those who retired a year ago, according to an annual projection released Wednesday by Fidelity Investments.
• The estimated $240,000 that a newly retired couple will need to cover health care expenses reflects the typical pattern of projected annual increases. The Boston-based company cut the estimate for the first time last year, citing President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. Medicare changes resulting from that plan are expected to gradually reduce many seniors' out-of-pocket expenses for prescription drugs.
• But Fidelity says overall health care cost trends are on the rise again, so it's raising its cost estimate from last year's $230,000 figure.
• "As long as health care cost trends exceed personal income growth and economic growth, health care will still be a growing burden for the country as a whole and for individuals," says Sunit Patel, a senior vice president for benefits consulting at Fidelity, and an actuary who helped calculate the estimate.
• However, this year's 4 percent rise is relatively modest. Annual increases have averaged 6 percent since Fidelity made its initial $160,000 calculation in 2002.
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Maurice Sendak's legacy lives on in bedtime rituals around the world
• NEW YORK (AP) -- The claws and teeth of wild things are a near-nightly affair at bedtime for Gregg Svingen's 2-year-old, Tessa.
• Almost every evening, she raises a tiny index finger and issues a clear and forceful "Be still!" to knock Maurice Sendak's monsters into shape.
• "This evolved into telling anything scary or threatening a confident 'No!', again with an empowered toddler digit," says Svingen, an American living in the Belgium capital Brussels who keeps two copies of Sendak's book "Where the Wild Things Are" on hand.
• Svingen and other grateful parents -- and their kids -- were among those around the world to bid Sendak a fond farewell Tuesday, when he died in Danbury, (Continued on page 28)
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