Washington ? Social Security will begin paying out more in benefits than it receives in taxes in 2017, twelve years from now and a year earlier than previously estimated, trustees said Wednesday in a forecast adding fuel to the debate over changes President Bush wants.

The trustees estimated that the program, which is about to be inundated with baby boom retirees, would go broke in 2041, also a year earlier than in their previous annual report. After then, benefits would have to be cut by more than 25 percent if payroll taxes aren’t increased.

The Bush administration said both findings underscored the urgency of its effort to overhaul Social Security this year, in part by creating retirement investment accounts for younger workers. Democrats said the trustees’ report undercut the president’s efforts to portray the program as in immediate crisis.

That label would appear to apply to Medicare, the health care program for the elderly and disabled. The trustees, who also oversee that program, noted that Medicare began paying out more in benefits than it received in taxes as of last year. They also predicted it would go broke in 2020, one year later than they estimated in 2004, but more than two decades before Social Security.

“The numbers leave nothing to doubt about the financial condition of the Social Security system,” Treasury Secretary John Snow, chairman of the six-member trustees’ board, said during a news conference. “The report underscores the fact that we need to do something.”

The trustees estimated that the premiums Medicare beneficiaries pay for doctor visits will increase about 12 percent next year — from $78.20 a month now to $87.70 in 2005. This year’s premiums are 17 percent above what they were in 2004.

The trustees said that Social Security’s unfunded obligations total $4 trillion over the next 75 years, an increase from last year’s projection of $3.7 trillion.

Bush has said he will not raise the current 12.4 percent payroll tax to deal with the funding problem, but he has said he would consider raising the $90,000 cap on income subject to the payroll tax.