Under the Affordable Care Act, new health insurance exchanges (called the federal and state marketplaces) were established for people and small businesses seeking to purchase health insurance that fully complies with the requirements of the ACA, including all the rules and consumer protections included in the ACA. States have some leeway in how they design their exchanges, but if a state does not set up the exchange, the federal government will run the state marketplace. States can have one exchange for small business and another for individuals, or they can merge them.
