Fewer than most people expect, and the cap is usually counted in sessions rather than pounds.

What the policy documents actually say

AXA Health puts physiotherapy, acupuncture, osteopathy and chiropractic inside an optional Therapies Option, and caps it at ten sessions a year on GP referral. The Exeter is tighter still: its therapies add-on covers physiotherapy, chiropractic, osteopathy, acupuncture, podiatry, speech therapy, pain clinic and dietician, but to a maximum of two consultations. WPA takes the opposite approach and lets you choose a monetary tier — £500, £750, £1,000, £1,500 or unlimited.

So the answer depends less on the insurer's brand than on whether you bought the add-on and which tier you chose. On several of these policies, physiotherapy is not covered at all as standard.

A course of physiotherapy is also among the treatments hospitals often decline to price publicly, which makes the self-pay comparison harder than for surgery.

Session caps interact badly with the excess. If the policy carries a £250 excess and physiotherapy costs £50 a session, the first five sessions are effectively self-funded before the insurer contributes anything — by which point a ten-session allowance is half gone. Bupa's own worked example makes the mechanic explicit: a £100 excess against £250 of physiotherapy means the insurer pays £150 and the member pays £100 direct to the physiotherapist.

It is also worth knowing what physiotherapy is being treated as. Where it follows surgery, it is often covered as part of the treatment package rather than under the therapies benefit. The Exeter's core cover includes up to three sessions of post-operative physiotherapy separately from its therapies add-on, so the two-consultation cap on the add-on is not the whole picture for someone recovering from an operation.

Questions to put to the insurer or broker

  • Is therapy included as standard, or an option I have to buy?
  • Is the cap in sessions or in pounds?
  • Does the excess apply to each session?

Related questions

Sources

  • Source: AXA Health — Personal Health membership handbook, October 2024, read 4 September 2026.
  • Source: Bupa policy guide — Bupa By You health insurance (BINS 14718) (2024), read 4 September 2026.
  • Source: The Exeter — Private Medical Insurance — Insurance Product Information Document (Health+) (2025-10), read 4 September 2026.
  • Source: WPA — Private Medical Insurance — Insurance Product Information Document (Complete Health) (2025-11), read 4 September 2026.

The limit behind every answer here

None of this reaches a condition you already have. Cover is written for problems that arise after it starts, so anything you have symptoms of when you apply is excluded — permanently under full medical underwriting, or until a symptom-free period has passed under a moratorium. Chronic conditions are excluded by every insurer whose wording we hold. Figures quoted come from current policy documents and change at renewal, so check the document you are actually offered.

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