By JENNIFER LEVITZ. Fidelity Investments said a couple without employer-sponsored health care during retirement needs to set aside $200,000 to pay for health-care costs after the age of 65.

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Releasing its annual calculation of retirees' health-care costs during a conference call, Fidelity said its 2006 estimate was up 5.3% from last year. Since Fidelity began calculating the figure in 2002, the number has increased an average of 5.8% each year.

The Boston financial-services company also estimated that less than half of the population has access to employer-sponsored health care in retirement, and predicted that number would decrease by 25% to 50% as more companies see health care as too great of a liability. Fidelity said America is experiencing a double-digit percentage decline in the number of companies offering retiree health benefits to employees.

The company predicted that "along with taxes," health care will be among the largest costs Americans will have to worry about in retirement.

Source: WSJ