During the sixth National Disability Conference at the Elysée, the President of the Republic announced a series of measures including the reimbursement of wheelchairs at 100%.
- Emmanuel Macron announced on Wednesday April 26 measures and a budget of one and a half billion euros to improve accessibility to public places for people with disabilities.
- Among the 70 measures is the full reimbursement of wheelchairs.
- The measures announced by the government “are intended to be deployed immediately”.
Wheelchairs reimbursed at 100%, accessible stations… the government assured that it wanted to improve the daily lives of the 12 million French people affected by disabilities and the 8 million caregivers, during the last National Conference on Disabilities.
Disability: France had been singled out for its shortcomings
A budget of one and a half billion euros to improve accessibility to public places for people with disabilities will thus be allocated and a series of “70 strong measures” was announced.
“We are not up to the ideal of equality that we have engraved on the pediment of the Republic“, recognized Emmanuel Macron at the Elysée. According to the Council of Europe and the UNthe rights of people with disabilities are neglected in France.
“Our goal is to propose a paradigm shift that meets the expectations of people with disabilities“, therefore assured the minister in charge of the file, Geneviève Darrieussecq, opening the conference at the Elysée Palace. For the government, it is therefore a question of “changing people’s daily lives concerned to enable them “ofgoing to school, working, getting around”of “to be able to practice sports and cultural activities, to be able to live fully”, underlined the Minister of Solidarity, Jean-Christophe Combe.
Wheelchairs reimbursed at 100%
The means will be put on accessibility to public places, on transport, housing and education, declared the government and the concrete measures concern access to employment, inclusion and the daily life of people with disabilities.
For example, wheelchairs will be reimbursed at 100%, whether electric or manual, from 2024. The remaining charge will therefore be eliminated. No means test will be required. Today, the price range of manual wheelchairs ranges from €300 (single transfer chair) to more than €6,000 (ultra-equipped chair).
In addition, from 2024, access to the system MaPrimeAdapt’ will be open to people with disabilities to adapt their accommodation. A specific label will be created for the private sector in order to allow everyone to identify accessible accommodation.
Finally, an envelope of 400 million euros should make it possible by 2027 to make the “158 national priority stations“accessible for all disabilities, motor and sensory,” said Geneviève Darrieussecq. Only half are today.
