If you have typed "AXA global health" into a search box, you are probably deciding between two things that look alike on a screen: keeping or buying a UK AXA Health policy, or buying AXA's international cover, which as we understand it is sold under the AXA Global Healthcare name. They are different contracts, and the choice usually turns on where you will live rather than on the insurer's brand. An FCA-authorised broker can ask for international quotes on your details and set them beside other insurers' plans; an enquiry through the form on this page has one get in touch with you; there is no fee, and going direct to AXA is also open to you.
An AXA Global Healthcare price is quoted on your own details, so there is no figure here; instead you get the reason, and what moves the figure. There is also a clause from AXA Health's UK handbook on treatment outside the UK and on living outside it. On its wording, a UK policy stops being much use once you move, and it gives you the questions to put to AXA about the international one.
Two AXA names, and why the difference matters before you ask for a price
"AXA Health" and "AXA PPP healthcare" are the UK insurer: AXA's UK membership handbook names its publisher as AXA Health (AXA PPP healthcare). Its policy is written for people who live in the UK. The same handbook says membership does not cover other primary care such as GPs, dentists and opticians, a point set out, with the wording, on AXA Health: getting a quote. A policy worded that way reads as one that expects the NHS to be there beneath it.
As we understand it, "AXA Global Healthcare" is the name AXA's international medical plans are sold under, run separately from the UK policies and on its own terms, so what it pays for is set out in its own policy documents. The practical consequence is that nothing in AXA Health's UK handbook can be carried across to it. If a salesperson, a comparison site or a friend says "AXA covers that", the next question is which AXA product and which document, because a benefit in one is no guide to the other. The same goes for plans with "global", "health access" or "worldwide" in their names: what such a plan includes is in its benefit table, not its name.
Two other points about names. The company that issues an international policy is shown on the documents you are sent, and the FCA's Financial Services Register shows whether a firm is authorised in the UK. An insurer based outside the UK may not appear on it, which is worth knowing before you pay, particularly for a policy bought from abroad or through an overseas entity. And "AXA Health" here means the UK insurer throughout, not the wider AXA group, which sells many kinds of insurance this page does not touch.
What AXA Health's UK handbook says about leaving the UK
The clause sits on page 30 of the handbook, under an exclusion for overseas treatment:
"We do not cover any costs for treatment you receive outside the UK, Channel Islands or Isle of Man. We do not cover any costs for treatment if you live outside the UK."
— AXA Health (AXA PPP healthcare), Personal Health membership handbook, October 2024, page 30, read 4 September 2026. This copy was hosted by an intermediary, so check the clause against the handbook in your own policy pack, which is the document that governs you.
The first sentence is about where treatment happens; the second is about where you live, and on its face it reaches treatment in the UK too. The best international health insurance sets that reading beside other insurers' wording. For someone planning a move, the useful point is when each sentence starts to bite. The first applies from the first day of any trip. The second applies from the day you come to "live outside the UK", and the clause gives no date for that, no test of where someone lives, and no notice period. How AXA applies it in practice, and whether another part of the handbook qualifies it, is worth settling before you go; once a broker rings back, they can take you through it and charge you nothing.
That open point is the reason for the questions in the next section. On this wording a UK AXA Health policy is not something to carry abroad and top up: once you live elsewhere, the clause leaves it paying no treatment costs at all, wherever you are treated, so the task is to fix the date with AXA and line up what replaces it. What international health insurance costs compares AXA's clause with Aviva's and WPA's, and cover while travelling deals with the shorter case, where the trip ends and you come home.
Questions to put to AXA, in writing, before you move
These are questions, not statements of what AXA does. Put them to AXA Health about your UK policy, and to AXA Global Healthcare about the international one, and keep the written replies.
- On what date does my UK membership stop paying for anything, given that I will be living outside the UK from a particular day?
- Does the residence wording apply from the day I move, or from the next renewal?
- Will AXA Health move me to an international policy, or is that a new application with its own underwriting?
- If I apply for the international policy, will my medical history be assessed afresh, and how are conditions I developed while on the UK policy treated?
- Is the time I spent on the UK policy counted for anything, such as waiting periods or a no claims discount, or does the international policy start from nothing?
- Which countries does the international policy count as my country of residence, and what happens if I move on to another?
- Does the area of cover I am quoted include the United States, and does it include the UK for visits home? If so, is there a limit on the days a year?
- Which company is the insurer on the policy documents, and where is it authorised?
The reason to ask in writing is that a phone answer about residence is no use to you if a claim is later declined on the wording. Whether time on the UK policy counts is for AXA to confirm, so its written reply is the answer to rely on. Once you have the replies, a broker can take the same specification to several international insurers rather than leaving you to ask each one the same eight questions yourself, and the enquiry form here gets your details to one.
What an international AXA price depends on, and why there is no single figure
The bands we publish for UK policies are for UK cover, bought by people who live here with the NHS alongside. International cover is priced on another basis, where you live, so those bands do not stretch to it and we publish no figure for AXA Global Healthcare or any other international plan. Borrowing a UK band would price the wrong product. Anything quoted to you elsewhere as "the AXA global price" should come with the plan, the age, the country and the area of cover it was priced on.
The main inputs, for the international market as a whole, are on the cost page: your country of residence, the region the policy covers, and in particular whether the United States is inside it. The layers you choose matter too (in-patient only or with out-patient, evacuation and repatriation, dental and maternity as options), as do the deductible and your medical history. How those layers fit together is described on international cover for expats and people living abroad in terms of the market generally rather than any one plan. Compare plans on the same area, the same layers and the same deductible, because an apparently cheaper quote is often a smaller policy.
On the direction of a price, as a general matter: a bigger deductible, a regional rather than worldwide area or a plan without an out-patient layer tends to lower a premium; the size of the saving is for a quote to show, and what you give up for it is what to read closely.
Short of moving: trips and a second home
A fortnight in Spain does not change where you live, so the residence sentence is not the issue on a holiday; the first sentence is, and it leaves treatment received abroad outside the policy. Whether AXA sells anything for trips is a separate question, so ask. Travel insurance is the separate product most people use for that, and cover while travelling sets out what to check in one.
If you split the year between the UK and somewhere else, the question is what "live" means to AXA, and the clause gives no definition. Do not assume a second home abroad is harmless or that it is a problem; put your actual pattern, in months, to AXA and get the answer in writing; once you have sent the form, the broker who rings can help you word that question, and it costs nothing. The same applies if you live in Jersey, Guernsey or the Isle of Man, where the two sentences pull in different directions, a point taken up on AXA Health: getting a quote. Readers coming to the UK from abroad will find their side of it on private health insurance for visitors to the UK.
AXA and cover outside the UK: short answers
What is AXA Global Healthcare?
As we understand it, it is the name AXA's international medical insurance is sold under, separate from AXA Health's UK policies. What it pays for is set by the policy terms and benefit table of the plan you are offered, so ask AXA for both.
What is AXA Global Health Access, and what are its benefits?
A plan name says little about what sits inside it; what it includes is in its own documents. Ask for the benefit table, the list of exclusions and the definition of your country of residence before you pay.
How much is AXA Global Healthcare, or AXA Global Health Access, per month?
There is no single figure: international premiums turn on your country of residence, the region covered, which layers are included, the deductible and your medical history, so the price that applies to you is a quote built on those. What international health insurance costs sets out what moves it.
Does AXA Health cover you abroad?
On the page-30 clause of its UK handbook, no. Treatment received anywhere beyond the UK, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man is excluded, and so is all treatment once you live outside the UK. Whether any other part of your own policy offers something for trips is for AXA to say.
Can I keep my AXA Health policy if I move abroad?
The residence sentence suggests you could not usefully do so, though how AXA applies it, and whether an exception fits your circumstances, depends on the policy. Ask AXA when cover ends and whether it will move you to an international policy, and take the answers to a broker if you want other insurers priced alongside.
Are there reviews of AXA's international health insurance?
Reviews of AXA Health's UK service may be a poor guide to an international plan sold under another name and on other terms, so look for ones that name the plan and the country the reviewer lived in.
Is AXA Global Healthcare the best expat cover?
No plan is best for everyone: "best" depends on country, area of cover, age and history. Expat health insurance: choosing a policy for life abroad sets out how to compare plans on those points.
Is AXA Health the same as AXA PPP healthcare?
The handbook gives its publisher as AXA Health (AXA PPP healthcare), which suggests the two names belong to the same UK insurer. Either way, that is the UK business, not the international cover.
The next step is to write down your destination, your move date and which of the eight questions above matter to you, then put them into the enquiry form here, which asks a broker to come back with international plans priced on one set of details; if you want AXA's included, say so. Free, and a few minutes' typing.