France-Soir Second day of taxi demonstration in Lyon, Paris joins the movement
Parisian taxis joined forces on Tuesday for the second day of mobilization against a reduction in the price of patient transport, which is expected to be lower than the day before, while the Rhône prefecture appealed to the CRS to “free up” traffic access around Lyon.
The movement has now spread to Paris, where around 500 taxis are demonstrating in the morning near the National Assembly, and others are arriving via the A13 motorway and La Défense at the entrance to Paris, to protest against this negotiation.
Between firecrackers and fireworks, they went to the Esplanade des Invalides and asked to be received by parliamentarians or the Ministry of Health, indicated Walid Hanida of the Team Taxi collective, at the origin of the demonstration.
At the Invalides, several hundred taxis are present, with more than 400 taxis blocked at Porte Maillot and others on the A13. “They are trying to make it impossible for us to come to the strike site”
En On the other hand, in the Lyon region, the mobilization was less this Tuesday morning, according to the striking taxi drivers themselves.
“There are much fewer of us that yesterday, we cannot afford to strike for long either, for some of our customers it is vital that they are transported, “Those who have dialysis, chemotherapy,” Pascal Wilder, a taxi driver for 44 years, told AFP, standing in front of the Edouard Herriot hospital in Lyon, with a few dozen fellow protesters.
– “Unmanageable” conditions –
In order to save 300 million euros on these medical transports, the Barnier government, threatened with censorship, wants to force taxis and medical transporters to negotiate measures with the Health Insurance, under penalty of imposed price reductions.
In addition, a decree implementing the Social Security budget for 2024 provides that a patient can no longer refuse, except in exceptional circumstances, shared transport, under penalty of having to advance the costs and only being reimbursed on the basis of shared transport. Patients must also be taken care of in less than 45 minutes and by geographical sector with a kilometer limit for detour per patient.
In 2023, more than 40,000 taxis were approved to transport sick people, suffering from pathologies ranging from cancer to psychiatric illnesses, according to Health Insurance, or nearly three quarters of taxis in France.
If the new conditions come into force, Eric, a taxi driver in the west of Lyon, who makes half of his turnover from medical transport, believes that his company would no longer be profitable.
“They (the government) are going to be forced to make concessions, it's huge margins that are going to go up in smoke, otherwise they're going to end up with patients who are going to be left without transport, it's not going to be manageable,” he worries, in front of the Edouard hospital Herriot.
“Health is what keeps us alive,” says Emmanuel, 49, a taxi driver in Ain, for whom this type of transport represents 90% of his turnover.
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