Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said President Obama's new healthcare law is having a positive effect on Medicare.

Geithner told reporters Thursday that Medicare's hospital insurance fund is expected to last through 2029. That's 12 years longer than the fund was projected to last before health care reform passed.

However, Medicare and Social Security still face big problems.

America's aging population is increasing demand for services from both agencies. The slow economy means they aren't bringing in as much tax revenue.

According to projections by the Congressional Budget Office, Social Security will pay more money in benefits in 2010 than it will collect in payroll taxes for the first time since the 1980s.

The government has already used trust fund money for both programs for other measures and that's left Medicare and Social Security with a pile of IOUs.

Obama has formed a bipartisan fiscal commission to work on ways to improve government finances, which include those for Social Security and Medicare.