Every exchange will have two national, non-profit (No shareholders), providers on them--one of which is the provider that does all the federal employees. It's notquitea public option, but it's close. In any case, it will prevent absurd rate hikes simply due to a compelled market--it's still a competitive field, which is why this whole design emanated from conservatives, because it still pits the insurance companies against each other in an open market, where it's easy to see who has the lower prices. (And again, they will be competing against at least 2 non-profit companies.)