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Republicans have found an issue on which they can play a rare bit of offense in their quest to hang on to their Senate and House majorities: Obamacare. Criticism of the landmark health-care law has been a staple of GOP campaigns since its party-line passage in 2010. But unlike six years ago, in the first election after the passage of the Affordable Care Act, Republicans aren’t running a national campaign against federal government overreach. Instead, they’re lobbing localized attacks in key states on issues plaguing the state insurance exchanges mandated by the law. (DeBonis and Weigel, 9/19)

People who warn that President Obama's health-care law is in dire straits often point to rising health insurance premiums as proof. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has called premium increases on Affordable Care Act exchanges "astronomically high." Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) says premiums have "skyrocketed." But are these growing premiums actually high? A new analysis from the Urban Institute found that the average unsubsidized premiums in the Affordable Care Act exchanges, commonly known as Obamacare, are actually 10 percent lower than the full premiums in the average employer plan nationally in 2016. (Johnson, 9/19)

The analysis found that nationally, the average second-lowest silver plan premium on an Obamacare exchange is 10 percent lower than the average employer-sponsored premium. The researchers made adjustments for actuarial value, or the percent of costs covered by the insurer, as well as utilization and age distribution. (Owens, 9/19)

Maryland health exchange officials have launched a new app specifically designed to help people enroll in health insurance on their phones and tablets. The move is a response to the high rate of people using mobile devices — more than a third — to visit the state's online marketplace for health insurance. (Cohn, 9/19)