Typing in "AXA Health plan" tends to mean one of two questions: you want to know what shapes the cover comes in, or you want to know which of those shapes costs what. This page deals with the first, and on the second shows which way each choice moves the price. A broker can price one shape against another for you in a single conversation; the enquiry form on this page reaches one FCA-authorised broker, costs nothing and takes a few minutes. One thing to settle at the start is vocabulary. AXA's own handbook speaks of a membership rather than a "plan", made up of a cancer level and named options that sit alongside what membership provides.
What an AXA Personal Health membership is made of
The document behind this page is AXA Health's Personal Health membership handbook, October 2024 issue, published as AXA Health (AXA PPP healthcare). The copy used here was hosted by an intermediary, not by AXA, and the version in your own policy pack is the one that binds you, so check each clause below against it or ask the broker to point out any differences on the call-back. Page numbers are given twice: the number on the PDF, then the number printed on the page, which runs one lower.
Read together, those clauses sort into four kinds of thing.
- What membership provides. One clause says membership gives access to video or phone GP appointments through the AXA Doctor at Hand service (PDF page 12, printed page 11), and goes on to say other primary care is not covered. It is quoted on AXA Health: buying online.
- A cancer level. The handbook names two, covered in the next section.
- Named options. The clauses refer to a Mental Health Option and a Therapies Option, each with a table of its own. Both are covered below.
- Settings you choose. Excess, hospital list and out-patient limit are decisions you make, not products. How AXA sets each one depends on the policy you are quoted; for more, see AXA Health: excess and AXA Health: hospital lists.
One out-patient line is clear: out-patient surgery is shown in the benefit table as "No yearly limit" (PDF page 4, printed page 3), a line quoted on private health insurance benefit limits explained. Whether consultations and tests carry a yearly figure of their own depends on the policy you are quoted, so put that question directly.
What these clauses describe is parts that combine, not a ladder of named tiers, though that does not settle whether AXA also sells tiers. If a quote arrives under a product name, the useful question is which parts sit underneath it.
Cancer cover: two levels, and the quote assumes one
Of those parts, cancer is the one the handbook itself puts in two grades. The sentence, from PDF page 5 (printed page 4), is:
"There are two levels of cancer cover with Personal Health. They are Comprehensive Cancer Cover and NHS Cancer Support."
— AXA Health (AXA PPP healthcare), Personal Health membership handbook, October 2024, PDF page 5 (printed page 4).
What each level pays is set out on our guide to AXA Health benefits; check it against the terms that come with your quote, and read nothing here as a ranking of the two. What follows from it is that the answer to "does it cover cancer" depends on which level sits on your certificate, and that a quote assumes one of them. Ask which, and ask what the premium would be on the other; the gap between those two figures is the nearest thing to a price for the cancer decision, and only a quote can produce it. The wider picture, with other insurers' wording, is on private health insurance and cancer cover.
The two named options in the clauses
Mental health
The wording is conditional on holding the option:
"If you have the Mental Health Option, we will pay for in-patient or day-patient psychiatric treatment, including specialist fees, as shown in the Mental Health Option table."
— same handbook, PDF page 18 (printed page 17).
So a membership without the option is a different membership. The clause covers in-patient and day-patient treatment and points to a table for the amounts; get that table from AXA before buying, or have the broker read the figures out to you on the free call-back. For how this compares across the market, see the best health insurance for mental health, and for the AXA page on its own, AXA Health mental health cover.
Therapies
The Therapies Option is the one where the wording needs to be in front of you, because it can be read two ways:
"Therapies Option table Fees for out-patient treatment by physiotherapists, acupuncturists, osteopaths or chiropractors No yearly limit that can include up to an overall maximum of ten sessions in a year on GP referral or when you have physiotherapist treatment through our muscles, bones and joints service"
— same handbook, PDF page 6 (printed page 5).
One reading is a cap of ten sessions a year. The other is that the fees carry no yearly limit, and the ten-session maximum belongs to the two routes the line names (GP referral, and physiotherapy via AXA's own muscles, bones and joints service), with nothing said about any other route. Which reading AXA applies depends on how it administers the option, so do not assume either. Nor does the table show that the option is the only way therapy can be paid for; it shows that the option exists. Put it to AXA as a question: if the route you would use is a GP referral, how many sessions does the option pay for in a year? The general position on therapy cover is on does private health insurance cover therapy?.
How each choice tends to move the price
AXA's price for you turns on your age, postcode and choices, so what follows is direction only, as a market-wide tendency rather than a statement about how AXA prices. Adding an option generally raises a premium and leaving it off generally lowers it, at the cost of not having that cover. Raising the excess, choosing a shorter hospital list or cutting the out-patient limit usually brings it down. The cancer level and the underwriting route change what is being priced rather than just the price, so two quotes only compare when those match too; the routes are worked through on AXA Health and pre-existing conditions.
How those pieces combine on an AXA quote, and what to check once a figure arrives, is the subject of AXA Health: what it costs; market-wide ranges, naming no insurer, sit on the UK average cost page.
AXA Health Plan, Personal Health, Health For You and Advance: which name is which?
AXA publishes several product names, and they are not rungs on one ladder. On its own website AXA sells the AXA Health Plan direct, and describes it as a set of care options to combine: "Stand-alone options include Outpatient diagnosis and care, Inpatient and day patient care and Cancer care", with mental health care added alongside one of those (axahealth.co.uk/health-insurance, © 2026, read 21 October 2026). Personal Health, the product behind the handbook used above, and Health For You are individual policies with sales brochures of their own in AXA's literature library (print codes PB114692/07.25 and PB114691/07.25). AXA's fair value assessment for its individual product group, issued August 2026, lists Personal Health, Health for You and Inspire Health together as current products.
Advance is something else: AXA's Advance sales brochure (print code PB111229b/09.26) presents it as "Private medical care and cover for your workforce", which makes it an employer scheme rather than a policy you buy for yourself. Whichever name sits on a quote, the handbook for that product is what sets the cover, so ask for it by name along with the options, cancer level and excess the price assumes.
What to ask before you choose a shape
- Which cancer level does the quote assume, and what changes if I take the other?
- Is the Mental Health Option included, and what are the amounts in its table?
- Is the Therapies Option on, and how is the ten-session line applied to a GP referral?
- What is the excess, and which hospital list is the price built on?
- Do out-patient consultations and tests have a yearly limit of their own?
- Which underwriting route is the price based on?
Answers to those six, written on the quote, are what turn a number into something you can compare. If you would like them put to AXA and to other insurers on identical settings, a broker can be asked to do exactly that through this page's enquiry form.
More about AXA Health policies
Does AXA Health have different levels of cover?
The handbook names two levels of cancer cover and two named options, for mental health and for therapies. Whether AXA also sells tiers of whole policies depends on the product, so ask what a quote is made of rather than what it is called.
What does the AXA Health Advance plan cover?
Advance is AXA's cover for employers to provide to staff, so what it pays for is set by the scheme your employer chose and the handbook issued with it. If you are leaving an Advance scheme and want cover of your own, a broker can talk through the individual AXA products on a free call-back.
Is the AXA Health Personal plan the same as Personal Health?
Not necessarily. AXA's direct website sells the AXA Health Plan, while Personal Health is a separate individual product with its own handbook, the one this page is built on. Whether a given quote is for that product is worth asking when you get one.
Can I get an AXA Health plan quote online?
You can approach AXA yourself, or a broker can price it alongside other insurers. The practical steps are on AXA Health: getting a quote, and AXA Health: buying online covers the web route.
Are AXA Health plans well reviewed?
That question has its own page: AXA Health: reviews and reputation.
The next step is short: note which of the choices above you are unsure of and write them into this page's form, so a broker can price AXA with and without each one.