CHICAGO (AP) – Illinois regulators are moving to shut down a struggling health insurance co-op with 49,000 Illinois policyholders.

Illinois Department of Insurance officials announced Tuesday they are seeking a court order to take over Land of Lincoln Health and prepare the company for liquidation. The department’s acting director, Anne Melissa Dowling, plans to work with the federal government to establish a 60-day special enrollment period for Land of Lincoln policyholders to find and purchase new health coverage.

The department says policyholders must continue to pay their premiums to maintain their coverage and health care providers must continue to honor their contracts for service to patients.

Land of Lincoln is a nonprofit co-op, one of 23 established under the Affordable Care Act. Nationwide, more than a dozen of the original co-ops have closed.