Medical transport: Angry taxi drivers want to "shut down" airports and train stations at the start of the school year

Towards new taxi mobilizations. By the fall, a text subject to debate will arrive in Parliament. While the government seeks to achieve 43.8 billion euros in savings by 2026 , measures are being proposed to find solutions to social security fraud.

The government is talking about a hole in the coffers estimated at 13 billion euros in 2024, described as a "betrayal of those who contribute to finance our social model" by Health Minister Catherine Vautrin, in the columns of Le Parisien .

The bill's target includes taxis licensed as "medical transporters" , those responsible for taking patients to the hospital and waiting for them during the appointment, which would be equipped with "a geolocation device and an integrated electronic billing system".

The idea is to be able to geolocate journeys and only pay for those with a patient, thus avoiding paying for "empty" journeys. This is an announcement that is not going down well with the profession.

"There are abuses in all areas, we are absolutely against the idea of supporting fraud, we have been fighting on this ground for several years. [...] But this law is already enacted in the decision of Thomas Fatôme, the president of the Cnam , it must come into force on November 1st, it is a communication effect", says Dominique Buisson, secretary general of the Taxi Federation, on the set of RMC this Monday August 4th.

On the subject of geolocation put forward by the Minister of Health, the latter indicates that the profession does not currently have any concrete information for its implementation.

"Not everyone is on platforms; independent workers work alone. Today, we're talking about switching to a geolocation system, but which one? We don't know." He added that the industry also fears that geolocation, if implemented, will be at the drivers' expense. "We'll have to change the billing software. The specifications aren't on the table; we're putting the cart before the horse."

As for the 13 billion euros of fraud announced by the minister, the representative of the profession says he is still waiting for figures 'which we should have had for several months, what is the fraud dispatching? We don't know anything.'

The year 2025 has already been marked by a strong mobilization for taxis. Last April, medical transport was already in the sights of the government and the health insurance system, the latter of which wanted a new agreement starting November 1st. After the first attempt failed, the mobilization is therefore being relaunched for the start of the school year, announces Dominique Buisson.

"We're resuming the mobilization on September 5th with a highlight: the Champs-Élysées. We're stigmatizing a profession in the eyes of public opinion by saying that the 60,000 taxi drivers in France are potentially fraudsters," he explains.

According to the industry representative, the social mobilization will involve "major transportation routes" such as Lyon, Paris, and Marseille. "It could even go further. [...] If we have to shut down airports and train stations, we'll have to do it."