Medical transport: taxis are relaunching their mobilization from June 11

Here we go again. Following an inconclusive meeting at the Ministry of Health on Thursday, June 5, taxi federations are mobilizing again starting June 11 to protest against the reform of medical transport pricing.

They are first calling for the Ministry of Economy to be blocked: "The problem comes from those who hold the purse strings," explains Bernard Crébassa, president of the National Federation of Taxi Drivers, interviewed by RMC . The taxi drivers are then planning to extend their protest to train stations and airports the following day. As a reminder, the drivers had already blocked Boulevard Raspail for two weeks in mid-May, right next to the Ministry of Transport.

Drivers are lamenting the failure to challenge the new rates for medical transport, which are due to come into effect on October 1. "The delegations left the table because the government doesn't want to revise its copy," Dominique Buisson, secretary general of the National Taxi Federation, explained in the columns of Le Parisien . "They have no intention of changing their method and the rates they impose on us," regrets Bernard Crébassa.

Prime Minister François Bayrou had indeed promised, after a week of taxi protests in mid-May, to "rework the details" of the new fare agreement. The agreement provides for a "national flat rate for pick-up and support" of 13 euros, including the first 4 kilometers, with a single kilometer rate per department, plus surcharges, beyond that.

Shortly after, Health Minister Yannick Neuder announced meetings in each department between prefects and the heads of the Primary Health Insurance Funds (CPAM). The objective: to assess "the local repercussions" of this new pricing and to achieve "territorial differentiation." "They told us that our departmental representatives accepted the method, but that is not at all the feedback we are getting. They are trying to create discord between the federations and our representatives in the departments," Bernard Crebassa castigates.

For its part, the Ministry of Finance hopes to save the health insurance system 300 million euros over the next three years with the help of this new pricing agreement.