We also explain the best way to buy AXA health insurance (and it isn't by contacting AXA directly). If you are still trying to understand how private health insurance works and whether it is something you actually need, check out our article 'Is private health insurance worth it?'.
1 min summary - AXA Health insurance review
- Axa Health insurance gives customers access to more than 250 hospitals and over 34,000 specialists
- Hospital list includes top London hospitals
- Axa ‘Personal health' policy is rated 5 stars by independent financial comparison service Defaqto
- Multiple ‘add-on' benefits including a travel option that covers medical treatment abroad and a mental health option that has unlimited in-patient and out-patient cover
- Get an instant online quote* and receive £100 cashback when you take out any private healthcare policy – Offer ends 31st August 2026
- See how Axa Health compares to the likes of Bupa, Vitality and Aviva
About AXA Health
AXA Health can be traced back to 1938 when it started life as the London Association for Hospital Services, a private health insurance scheme aimed towards higher earners in the London area. By 1960, it had grown to approximately 121,000 members and in 1998, Guardian Royal Exchange Assurance acquired what was then known as PPP Healthcare for £435 million. A year later, Guardian Royal Exchange Assurance was acquired by Sun Life and Provincial Holdings, who were part of the AXA Group and the name AXA PPP Healthcare was born. In October 2020 AXA PPP Healthcare underwent a further rebrand and dropped PPP from its name to simply become AXA Health.
AXA Health is a leading health insurance provider and was awarded the Best International Private Medical Insurance at the 2019 Cover Excellence Awards. AXA Health also won the ‘Best Health & Wellness Offering' at the 2023 Cover Excellence Awards.
AXA Health key benefits
- No annual limit on out-patient surgery
- Cover for diagnostic surgery, CT, MRI and PET scans
- Free cover on the plan for new-born babies (until your renewal date)
- 24/7 online GP service by video or phone with a GP or Advanced Nurse Practitioner
- Access to more than 250 hospitals and over 36,500 specialists
- A cash payment of £50 per night (up to £2,000 a year) when you have in-patient treatment free on the NHS
What type of health insurance can you buy from AXA Health?
AXA Health provides health insurance for individuals, families, small businesses and they also provide corporate cover for larger businesses. In this article, we will focus on individual health insurance however if you are interested in family health insurance, then check out our article ‘Which is the best family health insurance policy that covers my children?'.
How much does AXA Health insurance cost?
It really depends on how comprehensive you want the cover to be. AXA Health insurance starts by offering some basic building blocks of health cover which you can select to put together a package of health insurance that meets your needs. The four basic cover options you can choose are:
- Outpatient diagnosis and care – most tests and investigations that are carried out without the need for care or admission as well as minor treatment and therapies such as physiotherapy
- Inpatient and day patient care – treatment and care that means that you will need care as well as clinicians fees, physiotherapy in a hospital setting, ambulance transport, accommodation to stay with a child being treated, and more
- Cancer care – consultations, investigations and treatment for cancer related medical needs including wigs, living with cancer as well as some treatments that may not be available through the NHS
- Mental health care – access to professionals including psychiatrists and cover for treatment including inpatient treatment
You can construct your AXA health insurance cover using any combination of or all of the above options. Usually, health insurance covers the first two options so that the cost of any tests, investigations and scans as well as medical treatment can be covered by the insurance provider. However, AXA will let you choose the options that you need and suit your budget.
Below we have provided a breakdown of the costs of AXA Health insurance by age allowing you to gauge the rough cost of buying basic health insurance with AXA so that you are covered for ‘Outpatient diagnosis and care' and ‘Inpatient and day patient care'. We have not included Cancer Care or Mental health carelThe price will vary depending on your age, where you live and your smoker status.
Monthly cost of AXA health insurance
| Insured person's age | Monthly premium¹ for AXA health insurance |
| 30 years old | £33.74 |
| 40 years old | £36.24 |
| 50 years old | £36.88 |
¹ The monthly premium is correct as of 17th October 2025 and assumes that the applicant is a non-smoker in good health and willing to pay a £500 excess. It includes minimal outpatient cover or additional benefits and does not reflect any cost-reducing options. Paying annually will reduce your costs by 5%.
The prices assume that you will pay the first £500 – the excess – towards the cost of your medical care. You can, of course, choose a higher or lower level of excess and the cost of the insurance will change accordingly. The prices also include reflect the cost of list also assume that you are happy for AXA to select the consultant for your care – you can choose the option to select your own consultant and this would be more expensive. The quotes include 3 specialist consultations each year but you can choose to include cover for an unlimited number of specialist consultations which would cost more. We have however selected the guided option for hospital choice – choosing the foundation option will reduce the monthly premium.
Often, the best way to buy health insurance is to speak to an independent health insurance specialist as they will be able to guide you through each option and help you to understand the cost and explain the benefits of each option. Another reason to speak to an independent specialist is that they will be able to let you know if an alternative provider is cheaper, or perhaps if an alternative provider offers a more comprehensive plan for the same cost. Additionally, they can help you to complete the application forms, as well as chasing the insurance company on your behalf, speeding up the application process.
We have partnered with one of the UK's leading private health insurance specialists* in order to provide you with the most comprehensive quotations at the cheapest possible price. For a limited time, customers that take out a new healthcare policy before 31st August 2026 will qualify for £100 cashback.
Cost of AXA health insurance optional benefits
| Additional benefit | Change to monthly cost² |
| Excess reduced to £250 | +£4.81 |
| Excess reduced to £100 | +£8.61 |
| Excess reduced to £0 | +£14.45 |
| Excess increased to £1,000 | -£10.88 |
| Excess increased to £2,500 | -£14.69 |
| Cancer cover | +£4.41 |
| Mental health cover | +£5.26 |
| Choose your own specialist consultant | + 6.22 |
| Foundation hospital list | – £8.94 |
² The monthly cost is the amount a 30-year-old non-smoking person would pay in addition to the standard monthly premium for core cover for each additional benefit.
As the table above demonstrates, health insurance is rarely straightforward and so you will be required to make a lot of decisions when building your tailored quote. The dentist/optician cashback option and also the travel options are expensive compared to the other cover options and so should probably be avoided if you are looking to keep costs low.
How to reduce the cost of your AXA Health insurance
Here are six quick tips on how to reduce the cost of your AXA Health insurance quotes
- Pay annually – you can save 5% on your subscription by paying your annual insurance in one go
- Increase your excess – increasing the excess you are willing to pay (should you make a claim) will bring down the cost of the cover
- Protect your no-claims discount – AXA will reward you for every year that you don't make a claim, up to a maximum of 80%
- Let AXA Health choose the specialists by selecting the ‘guided' option – AXA has negotiated with certain specialists in order to bring down the cost of the treatment and so by choosing to use those specialists, you'll qualify for reduced premiums as AXA pass some of those savings onto you
How does the AXA health insurance no claims discount work?
A no-claims discount (NCD) is measured across 17 steps with AXA health insurance that ranges from 0% to 80% and you can choose to protect your NCD so that it won't change. AXA health insurance premiums are reviewed at the renewal stage each year and can change based on the claims you or any person insured on your policy make during the year running up to your renewal date. It is helpful to understand that any claims settled by you that are not paid by AXA or amounted to a claim amount less or equal to your excess amount will not impact your NCD. And even for claims that AXA paid out for, you can choose to repay the amount that your claim costs to avoid any change to your no-claims discount.
What does AXA Health insurance cover?
Some health insurance providers have three levels of cover which can broadly be described as basic, intermediate and comprehensive cover. AXA Health does it slightly differently as they provide one type of cover, called ‘core' cover, which can then be tailored to include extra cover options which we explain below.
Core cover
AXA's core cover provides treatment for a wide range of conditions. It includes the cost of surgery, specialists’ fees and drugs. It is important to note that out-patient drugs are not covered by the core plan. We look at additional cover options later in this article and explain how they work.
Out-patient options
There are three options to choose from, standard out-patient, full out-patient or no out-patient cover. It is important to note that some cover options are only available if you include outpatient cover – specialist menopause support is one of the benefits that AXA offers only if you included an outpatient option. We've summarised each option below.
Full Out-Patient option
- No annual limit on specialist consultations
- No annual limit when referred by a specialist for diagnostic tests
- No annual limit when referred by a specialist to a dietician, orthoptist, speech therapist or nurse
No outpatient option
If you choose this option, your core cover will only provide cover for out-patient surgery, CT, MRI and PET scans.
Guided option
AXA has negotiated with a number of specialists in order to bring down the cost of the treatment that it provides. You can choose the ‘guided' option which means that you will be treated by AXA's chosen specialists. By selecting this option, you'll qualify for reduced premiums as AXA pass some of those savings onto you.
Mental Health option
By taking out the mental health option you will receive the following:
As an in-patient or day-patient:
- No annual limit on specialist fees for psychiatric treatment
- Cover for psychiatric treatment, diagnostic tests and drugs, at a hospital or day-patient unit in one of AXA's hospitals (selected from its directory). The cover also includes accommodation
As an out-patient:
- No annual limit on specialist consultations for psychiatric treatment
- No annual limit on psychiatric treatment by psychologists and cognitive-behavioural therapists (as long as your specialist oversees treatment)
Therapies option
- Provides additional cover for out-patient treatment by therapy providers such as chiropractors, osteopaths, physiotherapists, acupuncturists and homoeopaths
- Receive up to 10 sessions a year when your GP refers you (or when you have therapist treatment through AXAs ‘Working Body' team)
- No annual limit on fees
Axa Health excess options
Your excess is the amount you choose to pay towards your private health treatment. The more you pay, the less you'll pay in premiums. You can choose 4 different excess options.
- £0
- £100
- £250
- £500
- £1,000
- £2,500
What is not covered by AXA Health insurance
Below is a list of things that are not covered on the AXA Health insurance policy. All of these are standard exclusions and would apply to most (if not all) insurance companies.
- Treatment of existing medical conditions that you had before joining. (unless switching from another plan and have ‘continued' medical underwriting – check out our article ‘How to compare the best health insurance policies'
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Treatments and services that would normally be carried out by a GP
- Treatment of chronic conditions, such as diabetes or asthma
- Preventative treatment or tests without symptoms
- Cosmetic treatment (AXA has an enhanced ‘family cover' which covers limited cosmetic treatment for birthmarks and prominent ears)
- Some specialist's fees will not be covered in full so you will need to speak to AXA to check before you claim
AXA Health insurance reviews
AXA is a leading health insurance provider and is deemed “Great” by the customer review site, Trustpilot. Over 16,000 customer reviews give AXA Health a 4.1 out of 5 star rating overall with around 75% of customers giving AXA 4 or 5 stars. Over 15% of customers gave AXA Health a 1-star rating and the comments relay administrative delays, declined claims and a lack of customer service. Customers who gave AXA 4 and 5 stars, describe the efficiency of service and fast claims payouts.
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