Private Medical Insurance (PMI) is designed to ensure that if you need access to healthcare services you won't need to worry about NHS waiting lists or paying for the private costs yourself. It offers you quick access to private specialists, diagnosis and treatment, when eligible.

These, plus flexible appointment times and a large choice of hospitals, are just some of the reasons why PMI may be for you.

There are two plans available for the education sector; Platinum and Gold. You’ll also have the option of extending the cover to include family members.

For more information on the plans, what they do and don’t cover, the pricing and how to join, please refer to the documents on this member page.

The policy is underwritten by AXA PPP healthcare Limited, trading as AXA Health, and administered by PHC, a member of the global AXA Group. If you have any queries regarding your membership, please call PHC’s Member Services on 01923 770 000.

Moratorium underwriting provides cover for treatment of new health concerns that begin once you’re covered. Once you’ve had cover with PHC for two years, any eligible pre-existing medical condition and symptoms you may have had in the 5 years prior to joining, will be covered if you’ve been completely trouble free from all symptoms, advice and treatment during the moratorium period (i.e., the 2 years period from the point of joining).

Any eligible pre-existing medical condition and symptoms you may have had more than 5 years prior to joining, will be covered if you’ve been completely trouble free from all symptoms, advice and treatment during the 5 years prior to joining.

For full details regarding how moratorium underwriting works, please see section 3 ‘How your membership works' of the AXA Health Education Platinum or Gold handbooks, dependent on the plan chosen.

Please see your AXA Health Education Platinum or Gold handbook, dependent on your plan chosen, for full details of how to make a claim. Or call AXA Health's claims line on 0800 068 6256. 

You cannot be a member of more than one PMI scheme at the same time. Therefore, if you already have an alternative PMI arrangement there will be no change. However, should you wish to leave your current arrangement and join this Group Payroll Deduct PMI scheme, you may choose to do so. Before making any decisions to switch arrangements, please ensure you review the terms and conditions of each plan to fully understand any impacts on benefits or underwriting.

Please refer to your current policy documents and the AXA Health Education Platinum or Gold handbook, dependent on your plan chosen, for full details.

Due to the complexity of the product, it is extremely difficult to provide a like for like comparison against other providers due to multiple product options, benefits and underwriting styles. You can however compare the Platinum or Gold plans, in the “Benefits Comparison Table.“ 

You can choose from AXA Health Platinum or Gold. Both plans vary in level of cover. However, for peace of mind, you can be reassured that both plans benefit from core cover. That’s access to private specialists, diagnostics, hospitals and eligible treatment, when needed.

These plans also offer additional benefits, including:

• Mental Health Assessments and Support service - get seen by a private specialist quickly, when referred by a GP*, via the Mental Health Assessments and Support service. For members aged 18 and over only.
• Counselling and Support service - to help members with issues from the serious, to the every day. For members aged 16 and over only.
• 24/7 Health Support Line - access to round the clock phone support and health information via the 24/7 Health Support Line, where you can discuss health issues, medication, and treatment.
• Muscle, Bone and Joint Support service - for hassle-free muscle, bone and joint care when needed, fast, without the need for a GP referral first*. For members aged 18 and over only.
• Unlimited, secure telephone and online 20- minute private GP or Advanced Clinical Practitioners (ACPs) appointments, via the AXA Doctor at Hand service, powered by Doctor Care Anywhere. Available 24/7, 365 days a year.1
• Access to over 250 private hospitals and 36,500 recognised consultants and other practitioners.
• Up to 40% off Fitness & Wellbeing centres around the UK with Nuffield Health & Hussle.2

You’ll also have the option of extending the cover to include family members. Like all insurance plans there are exclusions and limitations to cover. The below are the most significant:

• Charges when treatment is received outside of our Directory of Hospitals.
• General dental procedures.
• Routine pregnancy and childbirth.
• Treatment of medical conditions that existed, or you had symptoms of, before joining.
• Treatment of ongoing, recurrent and long-term conditions (also known as chronic conditions).  

For full details on all four plans please refer to the AXA Health Education Platinum or Gold handbook, dependent on your plan chosen, available on request.

* Subject to the terms, conditions and underwriting terms applied to your cover. For example, if you are covered on moratorium underwriting, we may require some further information from your registered GP in order to assess whether your claim is eligible.
1 Subject to appointment availability and the Doctor Care Anywhere fair-usage policy. Access to AXA Doctor at Hand is not available to under 18s covered on the policy.
2 Full T&Cs are available here. 

Yes, as an AXA Health member you can change your plan. Please note that a change of plan can only happen during the agreed renewal election window. You will not be able to switch to a different plan at any other time during your policy year. If you wish to change plan please make sure to review the plan benefits in detail, including what is and isn’t covered, to ensure it will meet your needs.

A lead member can cover up to 8 children. Children may be covered up to the renewal following their 25th birthday. 

Yes, you can insure dependants as a single parent cover, even though your partner has cover in place already. The criteria is that all correspondence for all members on cover will go to the lead members address as long as they are UK residents with a UK GP. As the lead member, the premiums would be based on your age with family member upgrades calculated at the appropriate multiple on that premium.

Yes you can insure:

• Dependants on single parent cover even though your children may live at a different address.

Or

• Your partner and your children as family cover.

Please be aware, you can only have one partner on cover. The handbook states that you can normally add your partner. You must be either married, in a civil partnership, or living together permanently in a similar relationship. Any of your children or your partner’s children. 

AXA Health's healthcare plans are designed to cover necessary treatment of new medical conditions that arise after you join.

Should you change plan (this is only available at renewal), previous eligible conditions may no longer be covered subject to the terms and conditions of that plan. 

No. Your insurance is not designed to cover every situation. It is designed to add to, not replace, the NHS. There are some conditions and treatments that the NHS is best at handling – emergencies are a good example. 

These plans are not available to buy direct, so you’ll not find them on comparison sites.

Rest assured that AXA Health always aim to keep pricing competitive and being part of a group scheme like this can help offset large increases.

To support providing value to our customers, AXA Health has customer value procedures in place. These procedures include regular assessments to test that the Platinum and Gold products for the education sector provide fair value to those using them.

The products are monitored on an ongoing basis throughout the product lifecycle and assessed against a set of Management Information (MI) metrics to analyse performance and ensure that they continue to meet the needs, characteristics and objectives of the customer and deliver fair outcomes.

To help establish value across the product range, in the Group Payroll Deduct - Employee Brochure you can review the benefits available at plan level. This will assist in demonstrating what you’ll get for your monthly payment. 

The understand the cost of the benefit please contact your intermediary, MMB.

Premiums are based on the lead member’s age with family member upgrades calculated at the appropriate multiple on that premium. 

The policy has an excess of £100.

Excesses are applicable to each person on the plan who claims, each plan year. This means that a new excess will become payable where treatment continues into a new plan year.

Where there are multiple claims in one plan year, only one £100 excess will be required.

For full details regarding how the excess works, please see section 5 ‘Managing your membership’ of the AXA Health Education Platinum or Gold handbook, dependent on your plan chosen.

Premiums are fixed for the policy year. Price increases at renewal can occur based on three factors; medical inflation, policy usage and age.

AXA Health Group Payroll Deduct plans for the education sector are priced by age, as members become older they will naturally see some increase. A price increase due to age will not occur mid policy year and will instead come into effect at renewal. For example, if a 50-year-old joins the policy today and turns 51 during the same policy year, they will not pay the 51-year-old monthly price until the new policy year commences.

For more information about the prices of the plans, please contact your intermediary, MMB.

Changing plan at renewal can also have an impact on the price paid. 

You will receive your Certificate of Cover, detailing your level of cover and membership number. This will be sent in the post to your home address. All other policy literature and information is available on this site.

The standard hospital list has been carefully selected to offer extensive UK geographical coverage and does include in excess of 85 hospitals in the ‘Greater London’ area. Hospitals in central London, however are excluded. Please refer to the AXA Health Directory of Hospitals for the full list.

The policy can be cancelled by writing to or calling us within the first 14 days after the start or renewal date. Otherwise you can only make changes subject to a life event criteria during the scheme year. Any other changes can only be made during the annual election window.

The qualifying life events include: 

• You get married or enter a civil partnership.
• You have a divorce, legal separation, bereavement or need to remove your partner as they are no longer eligible.
• You have a new child through birth, adoption or marriage (stepchild).
• You lose a child through death or the child is no longer eligible (e.g. overage). 

Should you leave the company then your private medical insurance will cease on the last day of the month in which you leave the company. If you are leaving your employment there is the option to continue your PMI by transferring to an AXA Health personal plan.

For the vast majority of existing members, AXA Health can continue to cover you for existing medical conditions with no additional medical underwriting, when transferring to a plan with comparable benefits and restrictions. 

Yes, all our GPs can write a prescription, however, these will be private prescriptions and will incur a cost as we are not part of the NHS. The cost of private prescription medication is different to the standard NHS prescription charges, and we have no control over what your pharmacy charges. Our doctors always try to prescribe the most cost-effective medicine and will let you know if it's going to be expensive.