The Social Security and Medicare trust funds each had a year added to their projected lifespans, but "the financial condition of the ... programs remains problematic," according to the annual report of the funds' trustees.

The Social Security trust fund is projected to last until 2041 - one year later than last year's estimate - and the Medicare Hospital Insurance trust fund is expected to be exhausted in 2019, also one year later than predicted in last year's report. When the trust funds run out, Social Security is expected to be able to pay 75 percent of benefits and Medicare is projected to be able to cover 79 percent of benefits.

Medicare has already started drawing down the money in its trust fund - which is to say, cashing in the federal government's IOUs that are in the fund - while Social Security is expected to start tapping its trust fund in 2017, the year in which it is projected that annual revenues will fall below annual expenditures.

"We are increasingly concerned about inaction on the financial challenges facing the Social Security and Medicare programs," the trustees said in the report. "The longer we wait to address these challenges, the more limited will be the options available, the greater will be the required adjustments, and the more severe the potential detrimental economic impact on our nation."