Connecticut has a new health insurer: Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, a nonprofit Massachusetts company, said Thursday that it has received a license to begin selling coverage in the state.

The company plans to sell insurance in Connecticut’s small and large group markets, but does not plan to offer coverage through the state’s exchange, Access Health CT, in 2015, public relations director Joan Fallon said.

“As we gain experience in the market, we will continue to assess when the time is right for us to enter the public exchange,” she said.

The company plans to begin selling plans in the second quarter of this year, with policies taking effect July 1.

Harvard Pilgrim also operates in Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire.

Arielle Levin Becker covered health care for The Connecticut Mirror. She previously worked for The Hartford Courant, most recently as its health reporter, and has also covered small towns, courts and education in Connecticut and New Jersey. She was a finalist in 2009 for the prestigious Livingston Award for Young Journalists, a recipient of a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship and the third-place winner in 2013 for an in-depth piece on caregivers from the National Association of Health Journalists. She is a 2004 graduate of Yale University.

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