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Premiums for midlevel health plans under the Affordable Care Act will increase by an average of 25 percent next year, while consumers in some states will find significantly fewer insurance companies offering coverage, the federal government said Monday. (Pear, 10/24)

Premiums will go up sharply next year under President Barack Obama's health care law, and many consumers will be down to just one insurer, the administration confirmed Monday. That's sure to stoke another "Obamacare" controversy days before a presidential election. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 10/24)

As concerns grow about much higher rates in many states, officials emphasized that the vast majority of people shopping on Healthcare.gov will pay less than $100 a month for premiums when tax credits are included. More than 70% of people will pay less than $75 a month after tax credits. (O'Donnell, 10/24)

"We think they will ultimately be surprised by the affordability of the premiums, because the tax credits track with the increases in premiums," said Kevin Griffis, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services. During a media briefing Monday, Griffis said the 2017 rates are roughly at the level the Congressional Budget Office forecast when the law was proposed. "The initial marketplace rates came in below costs," he said. "Many companies set prices that turned out to be too low." (Kodjak, 10/24)

The figures, announced by federal officials Monday, injected a new round of uncertainty into the future of the insurance exchanges that are a core feature of the 2010 health-care law. Health policy experts said the rising prices and shrinking insurance options add tumult to the coming ACA enrollment season. The data immediately touched off a fresh round of criticism among the ACA’s persistent Republican congressional opponents. (Goldstein, 10/24)

The White House’s report was released the same day as data from the Kaiser Family Foundation, which found that the cost of a benchmark plan will rise 145 percent in Phoenix, Ariz., to $507 per month for an average 40-year-old person. That same plan will increase 71 percent in Birmingham, Ala., and Oklahoma City, Okla. (Ferris, 10/24)

The Department of Health and Human Services report, released just two weeks before Election Day, is sure to provide fresh fodder for Donald Trump and Republicans in down-ballot races to attack the law. Democrats, who have increasingly warned about the escalating costs of Obamacare coverage in some areas, have pushed for Republicans to give up on repeal and work on fixes to the law. (Pradhan, 10/24)

House Republicans are questioning how much taxpayer money is going into federal subsidies meant to make insurance coverage more affordable for low-income Americans. Reps. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), Joseph Pitts (R-Pa.) and Tim Murphy (R-Pa.), all leaders of the Energy and Commerce Committee, sent a letter Monday to Andy Slavitt, acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, requesting information about the amount of taxpayer money that will go toward Obamacare subsidies next year. (McIntire, 10/24)

Hundreds of thousands of consumers whose health insurance plans are being discontinued for 2017 will get some flexibility when signing up for a new plan during the Affordable Care Act’s open enrollment, a sign of continued turmoil in the exchange markets. (Armour, 10/24)

The Affordable Care Act has put the nation’s uninsured rate to a historic low, but there are still roughly 24 million uninsured people in the United States. Of that group, the Department of Health and Human Services estimates that 10.7 million will be eligible for financial assistance this year. Officials expect about one-third of that group to sign up for an Obamacare plan during the three-month open enrollment period beginning Nov. 1. HHS is countering news of median 16 percent premium increases for silver-level plans with messages about the subsidies that may make coverage affordable for a majority of marketplace consumers. (McIntire, 10/24)