Free for whom?

You have to wonder how some of these people manage to live from day to day, surviving life's little trials, so stupid do they seem to be. This from Michele Hanson in the Guardian today is so breathtakingly dense that I had to read it twice to be sure it said what it seemed to say:

Last week I went to Moorfields Eye Hospital for a cataract inspection. My friend John Brown accompanied me to distract and support me, so that I wouldn't faint - because the thought of a knife approaching a jelly eyeball makes me come all over hot, weepy and breathless. There's just something about eyes I can't quite cope with. For months I have been planning, should an operation be necessary, to beg for a triple-strength general anaesthetic and specially induced three-day coma to get me through it.

But guess what? It wasn't bad at all. All the doctors, nurses, researchers and staff were kind, charming and patient. I couldn't feel the eye-swabbing or examination. There wasn't even a long wait, despite the crowds of patients. Tremendously sophisticated equipment was used, and all this was free. Free on the NHS. Miraculous, seeing as there are so many millions more of us nowadays. The NHS cost £105.6bn to run in 2007 and is 60 years old on July 5. So this is a little hymn of praise to the NHS. Eh? Free? What world are you living in?

The woman has followed the very word, free, with the statement: The NHS cost £105.6bn to run in 2007. So how exactly is it free? I assume you pay taxes. You PAY taxes. Geddit?