Expatriate health insurance FAQs

By purchasing our health plan you’re giving yourself the option to have treatment in any country around the world, depending on the area of cover you choose.

AXA PPP International offers two areas of cover – Worldwide and Worldwide excluding USA. Your travel costs (flights, train etc.) are not included in your plan but once you’re back in your home country, in a neighbouring country or even at a medical facility on the other side of the world, we’ll cover any eligible treatment you need to receive.

If you take out our travel insurance upgrade, we will also pay for any delays, lost luggage or legal expenses included within your plan.

Find out more about the differences between health insurance and travel cover here.

Our health insurance policies are designed to provide you with global cover and support you anywhere in the world.

So if you’re moving to a different country, in most cases you’ll be able to take your plan with you. All you need to do is give us a call or contact us through your online account so we can confirm your cover and update your details.

You can purchase cover when you arrive in your new country or before you go. For extra peace of mind, we can even set up your policy 2 months in advance which means you can sign up to your online account, Customer Online or check where your nearest medical facility will be through MyGlobe.

You can also make the most of your health benefits before you go. Depending on the level of cover you choose, why not use your policy to get a health check or make sure your vaccinations are up to date.

You can find more details about our plans here.

If you’d like to get a quote or buy a health insurance plan from us, all you need to know is the country you’ll be living in.

We don’t need your medical records or your passport details to give you a quote. Although, it can be a good idea to have access to your medical records and if you are going to a country where you do not speak the language it can be useful to have them translated.

Once we know the country you’ll be living in we’ll just ask a few questions about you (and your family, if they’re moving with you). You can buy over the phone and often you don’t even need to fill in an application form for us to be able to cover you straight away.

At AXA PPP International, we’d encourage you to become an expat at any age. We do not have an age limit on our policies, however we do take your age into account when we give you a quote.

Once you’ve joined us, if you’d like to stay, you are guaranteed that we’ll renew your policy each year, provided you continue to abide by our terms and conditions.

If you take out one of our Standard or Comprehensive plans, there are no waiting periods for any of the benefits included on the policy. On our Prestige and Prestige Plus plans, there is a waiting period on your routine pregnancy and childbirth benefit. In most countries, you’ll need to wait 10 months before you are able to claim for treatment costs related to pregnancy.

We don’t think you should have to wait to use your benefits, so any other benefits including dental, optical and health checks, included on your plan, can be used straight away for any new conditions that arise after you’ve joined us.

You can find more details about our plans here

The nature of insurance is that cover is available if you need to claim rather than when, so to calculate annual premiums we take a number of different factors into account

Rather than basing your premiums on the amount you’ve claimed the previous year, we calculate our premiums based on the level of claims we anticipate across our business in the coming year, taking into account the products, hospital cover and ages of our members, along with the rising costs of medical inflation and new technology available.

As part of the AXA Group, we use our size and expertise to negotiate with providers so we can always try to keep our premiums sustainable for our members.

Find out more about how we can support you here

Our expatriate health insurance plans are built with your health in mind. We do not offer a “no claims” discount because we’d never want to discourage you from seeking the treatment you need for fear of losing your discount.

You can return home to have treatment close to your friends and family at any time throughout the policy year. However if you’re returning home permanently and you’ve built up a medical history with us and enjoyed the extensive benefits provided by your expatriate health plan while you’ve been away, we may still be able to cover you. It depends on where you’ll be living.

So if you’re interested in keeping benefits such as access to private medical practitioners, maternity benefits or cover for chronic conditions once you’ve returned to your home country, please contact us so we can discuss the options with you.

There may be some circumstances, for example if you are moving from another insurer or a group policy where we may be able to transfer the terms from your current policy.

In most cases, to keep our premiums sustainable, our expatriate health insurance policies will only cover you for new conditions that arise after you join. However, if you’re covered with us for 2 years and remain symptom free, we can discuss the option of covering you for medical conditions you had in the past.

For more information, please take a look at our video