Alphabet’s Verily Plans to Use Big Data for Health Insurance (1)

Verily, the Alphabet Inc. life sciences unit that’s previously targeted mosquito-borne illness and launched Covid-19 testing programs, is getting into the health insurance business.

On Tuesday, the San Francisco Bay Area company announced a new subsidiary named Coefficient Insurance that will also be backed by Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, the commercial insurance unit of Swiss Re Group.

The company will sell stop-loss insurance, a type that helps cover unexpectedly large claims against employers who self-fund their health-benefit policies. Generally, these employers set a threshold for how much they choose to pay out based on projected costs, and stop-loss...