Insurer doubled my premium

I am insured with AXA PPP healthcare, which recently advised me that it was closing my current plan, Health Cover Deluxe, and replacing it with its “award-winning” Personal Health Plan.

Last year my gross premium was £6,664.23. This year however, under the new plan, which offers the same cover, it has increased to £16,217.17.

I wrote to AXA PPP asking it to justify such a large increase and received a long-winded reply saying that it had “treated me fairly and in line with the terms of my membership.”

Can you get some answers for me on this? ET, BERKS

After I approached AXA PPP healthcare, it wrote to you with a form asking for all my personal details including my date of birth in order to answer the query. This seemed to be taking data protection provisions a step too far and contributed to the delay in getting any reply at all. It seemed very skittish about giving a proper answer.

Then it said that the current annual premium for your Personal Health Plan is £6,565.95, not £16,217.17. The latter is the premium it indicated you would be paying if your no-claims discount was zero.

You say that the previous policy premium did not have a no-claims discount, although the insurer told me that there was such a mechanism.

What you don’t like is that the fundamental premium with the new policy is £16,217, which it could become were you to make claims.

I asked AXA PPP healthcare to explain how the no-claims discount would be affected were this to happen. It explained that the discount grows for every claim-free year up to a maximum of 80pc. It reduces by three levels if a claim is made. The discount level, whether an increase

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