The federal government wants to remind consumers of the health insurance mandate as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and they're using a consumer-friendly website as a way to do it.

The Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday announced its relaunch of healthcare.gov, a website aimed at informing consumers about the health reform law while giving them a place to purchase insurance. The name of the website is also new, now called Health Insurance Marketplace.

Though exchanges are far from being up and running, feds say this month marks an "important countdown" to significant dates in health reform implementation. Oct. 1 is one of them—when open enrollment in state and federal health care exchanges begins—and Jan. 1 is the other, when the all-important individual mandate kicks in and when exchanges are scheduled to begin operating.

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