The president of the National Union of Taxis (UNT) Rachid Boudjema indicated Monday evening that taxis were invited to discuss the decrees implementing this measure on January 12 at the Ministry of Health.
At the call of his organization, drivers slowed down or blocked traffic on Monday on the main roads of Paris, Marseille, Toulouse, Lille and Bordeaux.
In Ile-de-France, taxis notably slowed down traffic on Monday morning on the A1 (north), before converging towards the Ministry of Health, in the center of the capital.
These taxis oppose an article in the Social Security budget (PLFSS) for 2024, passed in force in Parliament on December 4.
The government wants to encourage patients to accept an offer of medical transport (light medical vehicle or approved taxi) shared with other patients, via an online platform.
“Stop blaming both the patient and the carrier,” said Rachid Boudjema. “Today we already have shared transport. But the patient must accept it and it must not be inconvenient for them, without detours, without too much waiting.”
Taxi demonstration once morest carpooling to go to the doctor, December 11, 2023 in ToulouseAFP / Ed JONES.
Around 350 taxis also demonstrated in Toulouse, disrupting traffic around Blagnac airport, near an Airbus site where President Emmanuel Macron was traveling in the followingnoon.
Platforms
Ambulance or taxi journeys are reimbursed if they are linked to hospitalization, a long-term illness, a work accident, or if they involve a journey of more than 150 kilometers.
These transports represented reimbursements of nearly 5.5 billion euros in 2022, and 65 million trips were made over the year for taxis and light medical vehicles (VSL) alone, according to the authors of the law. .
The idea is to reduce the cost for Social Security by 100 million euros per year between 2025 and 2027, as well as pollution.
Nearly 15% of journeys are already shared, with incentive schemes for the most sharing carriers. But patient refusal remains a major obstacle.
Taxi demonstration once morest carpooling to go to the doctor, December 11, 2023 in BayonneAFP / GAİZKA IROZ
Without a valid medical reason to refuse it, patients no longer have the right to third-party payment and will therefore have to advance the costs. They will then only be reimbursed on the basis of the price of shared transport.
According to the government, this measure has little impact on patients because it only concerns scheduled transport, when shared transport is possible and authorized by the doctor, for example for journeys linked to dialysis or rehabilitation sessions.
“Livestock”
In rural areas, medical transport represents up to 90% of professionals’ turnover, according to the Federation of Taxi Craftsmen.
The UNT believes that shared transport does not reduce taxi turnover, but it would like to exclude from the system platforms which connect hospitals and transporters, such as doctors or VTCs, taking a share of the pie.
Taxi demonstration once morest carpooling to go to the doctor, December 11, 2023 in LilleAFP / Denis Charlet.
“Under the pretext of wanting to save money, they don’t think regarding the patient at all,” said taxi driver Kamel Belaz in Paris. “The patient, the poor thing, we have the impression that he is cattle.”
With these “medical shuttles”, “medical care would be taken away from us”, lamented Sergio Valleret, in front of the Saint-Jean station in Bordeaux.
“We cannot afford to make our customers wait at the end of a consultation or treatment, for an indefinite period,” underlines Emmanuelle Cordier, of the National Taxi Federation (FNDT). Furthermore, “the State hides behind figures, but with the medical desertification, and the gatherings of care structures, we travel more and more kilometers”, she underlines.
Its federation did not call for the demonstration, in anticipation of an important deadline expected for 2024 and which might require new mobilization: the renegotiation of the taxi agreement with Health Insurance.
