Land of Lincoln Health to stick around for 2015

A new nonprofit offering health insurance in Illinois will keep offering plans next year despite capturing only a small portion of customers on the new insurance marketplace.

Land of Lincoln Health CEO Dan Yunker says the insurance co-op sold policies to more than 3,600 Illinois individuals, families and small businesses in its first year.

Yunker says there's "real excitement" about the new member-governed nonprofit.

That's small compared to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, which signed up 200,000 customers on the marketplace and had the least expensive premiums in many regions of the state.

Land of Lincoln Health received a $160 million federal loan to get started. It was one of 23 consumer-run, co-op insurers created under the Affordable Care Act. It was incorporated by the Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council.