The Colorado Health Insurance Cooperative has been awarded a $69 million loan from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to establish a nonprofit health insurance co-op.

The statewide co-op is sponsored by the nonprofit Rocky Mountain Farmers Union Foundation, which will begin marketing health insurance products in 2013, with coverage beginning Jan. 1, 2014.

To read more about the co-op, click here.

Co-op plans will be available through the Colorado Health Benefit Exchange and can be purchased by anyone in Colorado. Purchasers will become members of the co-op, and will have a say in the election of a board of directors.

The Affordable Care Act provides for at least one health insurance co-op per state to receive loan funding for start-up expenses and to meet state insurance solvency requirements. The $69 million must be paid back as the co-op generates earnings from its health insurance operations.