NHS: Still Not Free, y'know

Jackart points to this big pile of steaming pile of crap. The article is just begging to be pulled apart as smug, mindless rubbish - and, in fact, both Jackart and one of the commenters do just this with considerable aplomb. But I'd just like to make one point; something that really gets on my tits because it is just, 100% wrong:

Trev pays £8.54 per month for all his prescriptions thanks to the NHS, because 50 or more years ago, lazy union members helped make sure that a Labour Government was elected which introduced a National Health Service. All the actual medical treatment he has received over the years from his local doctor and in hospital have all been free.

Yeah, because all of the treatment Trev gets is free. It just appears from nowhere. No-one ever has to pay for it. The NHS is free, people! Free! Go enjoy it! It is all for you! For free! Yay!

Except, it isn't free. At all. It is free at the point of service. But everyone has paid for the NHS. Everyone who has ever paid taxes or National Insurance *contributions* has paid for the NHS. Being free at the point of service does not make it free. And if we finally get everyone to understand that the NHS isn't really free, maybe we will get more people questioning whether they are actually happy with the generally rather crappy point of service at the NHS. And maybe, just maybe, gets people to consider whether it is worth keeping the NHS - especially in its current bloated, and utterly ineffective state.