The best health insurance for mental health: comparing cover

No one policy is the best health insurance for mental health in the UK for everybody, and naming one without knowing your history, the care you want paid for and your budget would be a guess. What can be compared is the wording. Insurers differ on whether mental health is in the policy or bolted on, how much out-patient therapy they pay for, how many in-patient days they allow, and what they do about a condition you have had before. Several insurers' mental health terms can be laid out together and priced for your age and choices by an FCA-authorised broker; asking costs nothing, and one will get in touch once you complete the form on this page.

Below, seven insurers' documents are compared setting by setting, each clause cited to the page it came from. This page is about insurance rather than health. If you are finding things hard right now, Samaritans can be reached on 116 123, free, day or night.

What "best" can mean when you compare mental health cover

Private mental health insurance in the UK is not, in the seven insurers' policies compared below, a product of its own: it is a benefit inside a private medical insurance policy, sometimes included, more often an option, and, wherever the clause gives a figure, limited in days, pounds or sessions. So "best" is a question about fit, and it breaks into four parts that can each be checked on a wording:

• Is it there at all? A policy guide describes every option an insurer sells; the certificate lists the ones you bought.
• How much out-patient treatment does it pay for? Sessions outside hospital are paid from this line, and it is where the wordings differ most.
• How many in-patient or day-patient days, and paying for what? The day count turns out to be the setting that differs least.
• What happens to a condition you already have? For many readers this decides more than any limit does.

What this page does not do is rank insurers: a fair ranking would need prices for your own details, claims records and complaint figures, none of which a policy wording shows. What it can show is where two policies that both say "mental health cover" stop being the same thing.

One caution throughout: every quotation below comes from a much longer document, so where a point is left open here, the full policy is what decides it.

Mental health cover side by side: seven insurers' wordings

The table puts the clauses into the four questions above. Quotation marks mean the document's own words; everything else is a summary of what the clause says. Every figure is a ceiling on what gets paid out, never a price.

Read 4 September 2026, except Vitality's guide, read 10 October 2026, and The Exeter's summary, read 21 October 2026. Bupa's guide leaves both whether you have the cover and the in-patient day limit to the membership certificate; its clause on reaching treatment and Vitality's on past conditions both come up below. A newer Aviva issue, dated March 2026, has since been published, so check the Aviva rows against the version that comes with your quote. The Aviva and AXA Health documents were read on intermediaries' websites, and the WPA and Exeter rows are drawn from short regulatory summaries whose full policies may set limits not shown here.

Three things stand out. Of the four documents that say whether the benefit is included, three sell it as an option and one includes it. The out-patient figures run from a choice of £1,000 to £2,500, and only one of the three lets you pick the level. And three insurers arrive at 28 in-patient days. The blanks matter as much as the figures: where a cell sends you to the insurer, get that line rather than assuming it is either generous or missing, and a broker will chase it for you, free, if you request a call-back.

Out-patient therapy limits: where the policies part company

If what you picture claiming for is a course of sessions rather than a hospital stay, this is the column to read. Three wordings give a figure, each built differently.

Saga states one figure, "up to £2,500 of benefits a year for outpatient mental health treatment" (Saga, HealthPlan Super policy book, May 2025, page 4, read 4 September 2026), with nothing in the clause to choose. Saga's plan is underwritten by Bupa Insurance Limited, but the limits are Saga's own.

WPA makes the out-patient level a decision you take when you add the benefit: either £1,000 or £2,500, plus up to 20 sessions of structured counselling (WPA, Complete Health Insurance Product Information Document, November 2025, page 1, read 4 September 2026); our page on the cheapest mental health cover reproduces the full clause. Two WPA policies, both with the mental health extra, can therefore pay different sums for the same therapy, and the lower level will generally carry the lower premium.

Aviva lists out-patient mental health treatment at "Up to £2,000", payable "On GP referral to a psychiatric therapist or psychiatric specialist" (Aviva, Healthier Solutions terms and conditions, April 2025 issue, page 6, read 4 September 2026). The row does not say what period the £2,000 runs over, so ask before treating it as a yearly figure. What makes Aviva worth reading closely is how its other options touch that line. One clause says choosing a reduced out-patient level leaves it in place:

"We do cover out-patient mental health treatment from the mental health benefit in sections full out-patient, reduced out-patient £500, or £1,000"

— Aviva, Healthier Solutions terms and conditions (April 2025 issue), page 24, read 4 September 2026.

Another names one option that takes it away:

"If you have chosen option C2 you will have no cover as an out-patient for: • specialist referred treatment by a physiotherapist, chiropractor or osteopath, or • mental health treatment as an out-patient"

— Aviva, Healthier Solutions terms and conditions (April 2025 issue), page 9, read 4 September 2026.

Read together: on the three out-patient levels the first clause names, out-patient mental health treatment is still paid from the mental health benefit, and under C2 it is not covered at all. Whether any other Aviva option touches it is a question for the full terms. That is the trap in comparing on headline price: a policy with C2 chosen and one without could both be sold as Healthier Solutions, and only one pays for out-patient mental health treatment. What C2 saves on the premium, and whether the March 2026 issue words it the same way, are both things the broker can explain without charge when it calls you back.

For AXA Health, The Exeter, Bupa and Vitality, take the out-patient mental health figure from the quote or the policy documents themselves. In Bupa's case that means the membership certificate, which its guide says "shows your specific cover and allowances" (Bupa By You policy guide, BINS 14718, 2024, page 6); what its mental health benefit pays for is set out on Bupa mental health cover.

So when you ask for quotes, name the out-patient mental health level you want priced, and ask whether any option on the quote, Aviva's C2 being one example, removes it. Put that brief to a broker through this page's form, and each insurer's version of the line can be quoted for you, free.

In-patient and day-patient days: the same number, worded three ways

Here the policies look closest: if you are comparing health insurance for mental health on hospital cover, the day count is unlikely to separate the wordings. Aviva's benefit table reads:

"Mental health treatment Treatment as an in-patient or day-patient – accommodation and nursing In full up to 28 days For each member, every policy year"

— Aviva, Healthier Solutions terms and conditions (April 2025 issue), page 10, read 4 September 2026.

Saga's policy book gives "up to 28 days a year for inpatient mental health treatment" (page 4), and WPA's summary "Up to 28 days/nights" once the optional extra is added (page 1), both cited above. AXA Health's handbook covers psychiatric treatment on an in-patient or day-patient basis "as shown in the Mental Health Option table" (Personal Health membership handbook, October 2024, page 18, read 4 September 2026), so AXA's day count is in that table; ask for it alongside the quote.

The words around the 28 are where the wordings stop matching, and each difference is a question rather than a conclusion:

• What the days pay for. Aviva's row names accommodation and nursing. AXA's clause names specialist fees as part of what it pays. Whether Aviva pays a psychiatrist's in-patient fees under another row is worth asking.
• What period they run over. Aviva says each member, every policy year; Saga says a year. The WPA summary line states no period.
• How a day-patient visit is counted. Aviva and WPA both bring day-patient treatment into the same count. Whether a day attending a unit uses up a whole day of the allowance is a point to have confirmed.
• What happens after day 28. The policy decides that; if you are still choosing, a broker can explain each insurer's approach on a no-charge call-back.

Behind every row sits a wider limit, the general exclusion for chronic conditions: broadly, care that has to be managed with no end in sight. Our page on cheaper mental health cover quotes Aviva's and Bupa's versions, including Bupa's exception for mental health conditions where the membership certificate shows that cover, and explains why the exclusion weighs more on mental health than on most benefits.

A mental health condition you have had before

For a reader who has had treatment for anxiety, depression or anything else in the past, this setting can outweigh every limit above, because a limit only matters if the condition is covered in the first place. Vitality's wording is a clear example, because it names mental health in so many words:

"Medical and mental health conditions (and related conditions) you currently have or had in the past, that are likely to need treatment in the future, are not covered"

— Vitality, Membership Guide: Your Personal Healthcare plan terms and conditions (August 2024), page 30, read 10 October 2026. Read on a third-party broker's website rather than Vitality's own; the guide that comes with your policy takes precedence.

Three phrases in it carry the weight. The words "had in the past" reach back beyond what you have now; "related conditions" widens it to whatever the insurer treats as connected, and the clause does not define the phrase; and "likely to need treatment in the future" is a judgement the insurer makes, not a fixed list. How the clause works alongside Vitality's underwriting options depends on the route you are offered, and a broker can explain it when they phone, at no charge.

The other six insurers set their own rules on past conditions, and none should be assumed to be gentler until you have read its wording. Our guide to health insurance with a pre-existing condition quotes Bupa's, Freedom's and AXA Health's general wording on past conditions; read together, they show such conditions are usually excluded on a new policy, and that the underwriting route, moratorium or full medical underwriting among them, shapes how. A page on past mental health conditions and cover takes the question further for mental health in particular.

So two quotes for the same policy can treat your history differently depending on the route, which puts the route on your comparison list beside price and limits.

How to compare mental health insurance quotes

Quotes can only be weighed against each other if each one answers an identical set of questions. Here is that set, drawn from the wordings above and ordered so the early ones rule a policy out soonest:

1. Is mental health on the certificate? Where it is an option, as on AXA Health's, The Exeter's and WPA's documents, adding it will generally put the premium up, so a lower quote that leaves it off is a quote for less cover.
2. Out-patient: what figure, and can any option on the quote remove it? Compare like with like, £2,500 against £2,500, and look for settings such as Aviva's C2.
3. Is counselling or therapy counted separately? WPA lists structured counselling in sessions alongside its out-patient money; ask each insurer whether it has an equivalent.
4. In-patient: how many days, over what period, paying for what? Ask whether specialist fees sit inside the day allowance or elsewhere.
5. How do you get to treatment? Aviva's out-patient line needs a GP referral. Bupa's guide offers a Direct Access line for mental health that you can call without a GP referral first (Bupa By You policy guide, BINS 14718, 2024, page 6, read 4 September 2026), though this concerns reaching Bupa, not what it then pays. For the others, how you reach treatment depends on the policy, so ask each one.
6. How is your history treated? Which underwriting route the quote is on, and what it means for anything you have been treated for before.
7. What happens when treatment goes on? Ask what in the wording decides when continuing care stops being paid for.

Settings that apply to the whole policy, such as the excess, a co-payment or the hospital list, also shape the price; raising the excess generally lowers the premium, and the cheapest-cover page quotes the excess and co-payment wording. Seen this way, the best mental health insurance for you is whichever quote answers these questions the way your situation needs, at a price you accept.

Mental health insurance in the UK: questions people ask

Does private health insurance cover mental health?

Often, but not automatically. Of the wordings compared above that say either way, Saga's includes it and AXA Health's, The Exeter's and WPA's sell it as an option, so whether a given policy covers it depends on what was chosen. Where it is covered, the clauses set limits in days, pounds or sessions.

Is there such a thing as mental health insurance on its own?

Not among the UK policies compared above: in each of them mental health is a benefit inside a wider private medical insurance policy. Many searches for "mental health insurance" come from the United States, where health cover works on a different basis. If you have seen a UK policy sold for mental health alone, ask a broker how it compares.

How much does mental health insurance cost?

Our indicative band for mid-range cover, written for one adult in their forties, is £40 to £80 a month, so £480 to £960 a year; it shows roughly where the market sits and is not a quote, nor a price anyone has offered you. What adding mental health cover costs varies by policy, and your age, postcode, history and choices all move the total. Your exact figure comes from a broker's quote priced on your own details, which the form on this page lets you request without charge.

Does private health insurance pay for counselling or therapy?

On the seven insurers' wordings above it sits in the out-patient mental health line, up to its limit; whether private health insurance covers therapy answers it in full.

Is marriage counselling covered by health insurance?

Whether any of these policies pays for couples or marriage counselling depends on the policy, and it is a question the broker can put to insurers for you, free, after you send the form. The benefits quoted here are described as treatment, on referral in Aviva's case, which suggests the question to ask is whether the insurer treats couples work as treatment at all.

Is there a waiting period for mental health cover?

Whether a waiting period applies to mental health in particular depends on the policy. What usually decides when a condition can be claimed for is the underwriting route and the treatment of past conditions, covered above; ask the insurer or a broker how that applies to your history.

What if I have no health insurance?

NHS mental health services do not depend on insurance; your GP is the usual starting point, and in England you can also refer yourself to NHS Talking Therapies. Private cover is an addition to that, not a condition of it.

From comparison to quote

Write down which of the settings on this page matter most to you: the out-patient level, the in-patient cover, and the history you need taken into account. Then take that list to an FCA-authorised broker, sending it in through the form on this page. Before you choose, ask for each insurer's answer in writing.