State Farm agents to sell Blue Cross policies

The state’s largest health insurance company is teaming up with the nation’s largest home and auto insurer to sell health care policies this fall, the companies announced Tuesday.

More than 3,300 agents for Bloomington-based State Farm will exclusively sell Blue Cross and Blue Shield individual health policies to customers in Illinois, Montana, New Mexico and Oklahoma starting Nov. 15. Those plans would kick in on Jan. 1.

“State Farm’s presence is both broad and deep in these states and, as a result, we will have the single largest network of dedicated insurance professionals resident in their communities,” Jeff Tikkanen, president of retail markets for BCBS parent Health Care Service Corp., said in a news release.

State Farm agents will market health insurance plans both on and off the Affordable Care Act health insurance exchanges.