Last week the federal government announced that 2012 Medicare premiums will increase for most participants by $3.50 per month from $96.40, making 2012 premiums $99.90 a month. The percent increase is roughly equivalent to the 3.6% COLA increase for Social Security announced recently, but much less than the $39 per month amount of the Social Security COLA. The Social Security COLA, the first since 2009, actually made the Medicare premium increase possible due to a law preventing most Medicare premiums from rising when Social Security payouts remain constant. The premium up-tick was significantly less than the $10 increase predicted by Medicare trustees earlier this year, which would have amounted to a 10.4% escalation.