Federal exchanges (noun): The 30+ online insurance marketplaces operated, at least in part, by the Federal government. Many states, like Maryland and Connecticut, are running their own exchanges. But the federal ones come in a couple varieties: Those run by the Feds, because the state thought the Feds could do an okay job; those run by the Feds because the state (Florida, Texas, Ohio, others) wanted absolutely nothing to do with Obamacare.