'A dollar spent on medical care is a dollar of income for someone'

Look out for this quotation and for this man, in the coming debate over U.S. healthcare reform:

I recently came on a phrase in an article in the journal "Annals of Internal Medicine" about an axiom of medical economics: a dollar spent on medical care is a dollar of income for someone. I have been reciting this as a mantra ever since. It may be the single most important fact about health care in America that you or I need to know. It means that all of us -- doctors, hospitals, pharmacists, drug companies, nurses, home health agencies, and so many others -- are drinking at the same trough which happens to hold $2.1 trillion, or 16% of our GDP.

-- Abraham Verghese, The Myth of Prevention, Wall Street Journal.